2020 will be a year that we will hardly forget. A year of reflection, introspection and sudden changes, many of them forced. How will we remember it after some time? We don't know yet, but the testimony for that future is being shaped today, as always, through artistic creation. This is the case of Fernanda Arrau, founder of the record label, United Colors of Rhythm. She has decided to baptize the fifth EP of her career and her label’s second release, as ‘Quiebre’ (breakdown in English). The EP was created a couple of years ago, almost entirely in the confinement of Madrid (one of the epicenters of the first European wave of Coronavirus) at the DJ and Chilean producer’s home.
Of course, a ‘breakdown’ does not necessarily mean starting from scratch. In the case of Arrau, the music that has emerged from this process takes on certain elements that had already been presented before in her work, but it accelerates toward new territories. Everything insinuates what comes with this single, also called ‘Quiebre’, which was also created with an actual fractured hand. The result focuses - more than ever before in her work - much more on melody than on rhythm. Both "Quiebre" and "In Door", a play on words referencing the forced environment of its composition, deliver a modern look at the genre italo disco, with arpeggio basses, dreamy chords and leads taking prominence, but with various references that those who have followed italo disco’s evolution will be able to notice.
In the second half, "Santeria" reflects both new searches for solutions to moments of hopelessness, and the exploration of other languages to add to its colorful palette of sounds. The biggest surprise is saved for last: a love letter accompanied by the suggestive voice in French of Chilean singer and producer Alex June, perhaps the most exciting vocal collaboration in Arrau's career, with a more feminine look at emotivity than that found in Mr. Fingers.
To complement the EP, and true to the collaborative style between image and music that United Colors of Rhythm has shown from the beginning, the artist and illustrator Camila Fernández, also Chilean and based in New Zealand, has participated, perfectly capturing in her artwork what the production company has wanted to convey in its songs.
Perhaps this launch is in the long run a manifesto of one of the most powerful lessons that this 2020 leaves us: that when we finish that introspective search we have a much better idea of what we want to change, leave behind, incorporate and continue to carry us forward. At least in her music, Fernanda Arrau seems to have figured it out perfectly.
Fernanda Arrau is a dj-producer from Chile, based in Madrid.
Since 2006 she has been a regular name in the most important
clubs of her native Santiago, contributing to the development of the current underground scene in Chile and in the rest of Latin America.
Her sound moves between techno, house and electro, influenced by the synthesizers of the 80s, bright boxes and Latin rhythms....more
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