Hola Papá, experimental electronica project by chilean artist Valentina Mardones, presents “Too Far with my Crazy Loser girl”, a record comprising 5 tracks: 2 studio works (“201X” y “Round About Midnight Stairs”), and three live takes (“Muelle Fracaso”, “Miradores Fracaso” y “Loser Heart under Water”). Coming from an avant-jazz-rock background, as MediaBanda lead singer from 2014 to 2018, her approach towards baffling, chaotic soundings in this solo work are extremely interesting.

Crossing unsteady pulses and rhythms with brittle melodies, her compositions are an invitation to keep our minds on the complex atmospheres she weaves and knits, sometimes looking for a break taking us to extreme noise, some other times descending towards peaceful melodic states – all of this can be found in this landscape.

This new Hola Papá work is a landmark in Pueblo Nuevo catalog. Her creative and sonic freedom statement allows us to keep exploring more complex music realms, going beyond the expected, taking risks and proposing new sound perspectives, using everything at hand, either the voice of one’s own, a Turin church bells recording, or a Microkorg synth, anything goes – but, most of all, the boldness to break rules and standards.

Mika Martini
(Santiago, Chile. Julio / July 2020)
English version by Gerardo Figueroa.