Arts
Mixtape 23 sees Mexican artist Lorena Quintanilla crafting a selection of tunes to warm the late November afternoons. Originally for Guadalajara, the artist made a name for herself as one-half Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, a duo responsible for some of the most sonically adventurous psych experimentalism of recent times with a reputation for exceptional live shows and a catalogue of equally impressive albums to match. Now relocated in the less hectic city of Ensenada in Baja California, Quintanilla has reinvented herself into J. Zunz, a new solo project where she explores similar atmospherics but marking a distance with what she had been doing with the obsolete. J.Zunz is also the result of a metamorphic process whereby the minimal is rendered maximal and the personal fused with the political. The initial vision for the J. Zunz project was for Lorena to strip her approach down to the basics. She remembers reading a biography of John Cage, where the author was referring to the influence of Buddhism and meditation, and modern artists like Sonia Delaunay, Lucio Fontana, Julio Le Parc, Duchamp, futurism... that detonated something inside her and sparked a myriad of ideas. Earlier in August J. Zunz published her second album, Hibiscus, one of the most popular flowers in her native Mexico. The album marks a move on sonically from earlier comfort zones in her work, into minimal electronics, hypnotic repetition and compelling trance states, arriving at a soundworld in which cyclical synth patterns, eerie ambient textures and cathartic vocal exhortations. “It is hard to describe any record as they keep unfolding to me in time,” says Lorena. “Now it is almost a year since I recorded it. What I know is that I wrote the album during a personal crisis inside and a political crisis outside. After being profoundly hurt by a person, I trusted but also by the structures outside of me. I wrote it during sleepless nights filled with overwhelming thoughts and feelings.” The collection of tracks in Hibiscus are sinuous, enticing and mysterious; one may feel a bit spooked while wishing this mischievous journey never finishes. For this mixtape, Lorena was inspired by the content of CLOT Mag: I selected some tracks by INTERSPECIFICS, which is an amazing collective that mixes science with music. I chose some tracks that use the translation of different microorganisms and their bioelectrical activity into sound. I also added a track by Alexandra Cárdenas (a master at LiveCoding) and some political electronics from the past. The artists behind the track Ola! have been experimenting with mind and body healing through sound frequencies. I know they have a mattress filled with subwoofers where you can rest while you are feeling the vibrations. Tracklist: 1. INTERSPECIFICS - Infinites 2. Iván Pequeño - ¡Ahora! (Fragmento) 3. Niños De La Tierra - Ola! (Late Edit) 4. Jocy de Oliveira - Wave Song Para Piano e Fita 5. Alexandra Cárdenas - HELLO WORLD 6. INTERSPECIFICS - Slime Mould Music