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The Chilean netlabel Pueblo Nuevo brings us this powerful compilation called “frecuenciAzul”, wherein eight Chilean creators pay tribute to nature and the territory. This work allows us to connect with our ancestors, human or not, whom we follow, and who have been displaced from their own home, coloring the natural landscape with death and gray hues. It’s a kind of collective spell that seeks to heal us all and promote the care and regeneration of our environment.

The compilation begins with ‘Bahía Misteriosa’ by Alisú, an ambient track that evokes the sounds of the sea, through the breaking of waves and the voices of seagulls and other seabirds gracefully intertwining in a synthesis of sounds that appear and disappear, as if it were breathing itself. This magnificent piece melancholically transports us to an unfathomable place, a inhospitable bay that rarely receives human visitors.

Next, we hear ‘Geofonías VIII’ by Valentina Villarroel, a curious collage of underwater acoustic recordings. With the help of a hydrophone, we are transported several meters below the surface amid the astonishment of running out of air. We can feel how the pressure in our ears changes and then just barelythe sound variations of the water, hitting the microphone capsule, as they surround us. A feeling of anxiety accompanies the listener, as if waiting for the sea not to realize that we have entered its territory.

We continue with ‘Sky’ by Valentina Maza, which begins with the voices of birds and establishes from the beginning an upliftingrhythm inspired by the fluctuations of the clouds in the sky. Delay and distortion play their part, elevating us towards a futuristic landscape suspended in the air where calm and storm alternate in this celestial theater. We wonder, will we ever be able to fly? Without a doubt, we accomplish this through sound.

In ‘Electriza’ by Amanda Irarrázabal, we have a masterful lesson on how to gather the sounds of the various stages of a storm. A pink noise serves as a continuous bass to recreate raindrops falling furiously on the earth. The thunder magnetizes the environment with electric currents playing in the stereo image. Do we hear a cello dancing in the background? We seem to perceive a chorus of amphibians and a cheerful whistle that invites an encounter. In the end, we welcome all those creatures that join in gratitude for this gift from the sky.

As we reach the midpoint of the album, we find darlavida, the artistic alias of Darla Quintana Medina, who presents us with ‘Efecto Mariposa’ (Butterfly Effect), an ode to chaos, a piece where synthesis and arpeggios, apparently random, intertwine with field recordings made by Maita Apparcel. The sounds followone another, as if manifesting the fact that nothing perishes, everything transforms. The supposed disorder within the sound landscape is nothing more than the birth of new creatures, which make their way through frequency sweeps and, together with chord pads, animal sounds, and certain rhythmic cells, narrate metaphors of a cyclical time that takes us back to the beginning.

‘Naturica’ is a piece by Groovestastik, the alter ego of Paulina Lobos, a dark work that flirts with industrial techno while addressing the history of the earth, from its constitution from a solar nebula, through the sounds of various water phenomena and the singing of birds interrupted by the presence of human voices and city noise. The relentless rhythm begins to accelerate its pulse as we wonder if it will be possible for all these creatures to live in harmony someday.

The next track stands out from the rest in the importance it gives to the percussive part. ‘Quick Sand’ is a work by Sofía Pululosz that is inspired by the viscosity of quicksand. Riddim, a subgenre of dubstep, makes its way through various minimalist percussion arrangements. The phrase ‘fuck this shit’, which denotes frustration in English, appears provocative and is deconstructed through sampling and processing. If we are currently in quicksand, what do we do to get out of it?

After all these reflections, we conclude with an ambient piece that invites us to immerse ourselves in the deepest relaxation, a grand overlay of textures that challenges the force of gravity, allowing us to free ourselves from our earthly weight, float on the soft layer of snow, and elegantly cross even the darkest black holes in the universe. ‘Visión Blanca’ by Yadak floods us with hope, encouraging us to explore the icy landscapes, under the protection of the majestic and centuries-old Mother Araucarias, ancestral guardians of the southern region. We still have time to counteract the ravages of climate change and preserve the beauty of our natural environment.

Emilia Bahamonde Noriega
Música, Ingeniera en sonido / Musician, Sound Engineer.
(Ciudad de México. Mayo / Mexico City. May 2024)