Veröffentlicht
Jun 27, 2024
- Soothing ambient odes to Argentina's wildnerness.
- Qoa is the Quechua word for a mythological wild cat that prowls in the heights of the Andes. It also means "that which transforms into something else." From the project's name to the sounds that encompass it, Buenos Aires-based sound artist Nina Corti is inspired by the non-human world. Their 2019 debut, Tupungatito, was named after an active volcano on the Andean border between Chile and Argentina. Two years later, they released Asteroide, a gently humming space odyssey. Their ambient creations are dominated by the sounds of splashing water, elongated tones and crackling beats that transmute organic sounds into an entirely new soundscape.
Their fifth album, SAUCO, continues to frolic in untouched landscapes, this time drawing from the wilderness of their native Argentina. The record teems with environmental recordings—insect chirps, soothing rain patter—that brush against drum machines and bright, chiming synths. Rather than conjure the overwhelming, at times violent, parts of Earth's mysteries, SAUCO chooses to hone in on the planet's subtle magic. Each song is an offering to a particular set of flora and fauna. The opening title track translates to elderflower, a medicinal plant with small, white petals. Corti embodies the dainty growth in a melancholic biome: a sea of low-pitched drones, distant birdsong and keys that teeter up and down the scale.
From this low hum, SAUCO spreads every which way, like ivy left to its own devices. Lead single "Yatei" is an ode to an endangered stingless bee known for making curative honey, and the song evokes the insect's flight with echoing steel drums and twinkling xylophone. Below this floaty atmosphere, SAUCO grounds itself in surprising percussive moments. Tracks like "Anartia," named after the subtropical white peacock butterfly, sound like they were pulled directly out of a pared-down Latin club set, with syncopated drums pulsing harmoniously alongside haunting organ loops and ethereal chopped-up vocals. Even at its most energetic, SAUCO maintains a meditative stillness.
Music critic Isabelia Herrera once wrote that ambient is "an invitation to suspend time." If Qoa's artistry is a suspension of time, it's also a transportation into the dark of the forest, the babble of the creek: a place where no LED light treads. It's a reminder of Pachamama, the Quechua-Andean Earth mother, untouched by corporations and the world leaders who have mined her wealth for the materials used to create the very screen you're using to read this. SAUCO is a reminder of respite in an evermore-digital world. Corti's music positions itself as an antidote to manmade isolation, a nudge to set down our black mirrors, splay our bodies on wet grass and breathe.
Tracklist01. SAUCO
02. LIQUEN
03. YATEI
04. MUITU
05. CIEVRVO DE LOS PANTANOS
06. LIPPIA ALBA
07. SENNA
08. ANARTIA
09. ZAFIRO DEL TALAR