File download is hosted on Megaupload
Photo by David Brendan Hall
Venezuelan producer Alejandro Ghersi, aka Arca, celebrates the release of his new self-titled album today. The 13-track effort is available to stream below via Apple Music and Spotify. Read our review of the album here.
Due out through XL Recordings, Arca follows 2015’s superb Mutant as well as last summer’s Entrañas mixtape. It’s his third-full length overall, but Ghersi’s first to actually feature his vocals — a decision he made thanks to a suggestion from one of his collaborators, Icelandic icon Björk.
“I don’t know if I would’ve ever sung on this record if it weren’t for Björk,” he told i-D recently. “We were in the car together and I had been singing for fun and she turned to me very casually and asked me if I’d ever considered singing on my music. I just dismissed it.”
“But then I took her very seriously because I respect her so profoundly as a vocalist,” Ghersi went on. “She gave me so much guidance, so I really want to celebrate that when I talk about the record. It was a big deal. She was so nurturing throughout the whole process and I don’t know if I would’ve been so brave to do his without her as a friend.”
In his commendatory review, our own David Sackllah writes:
“Ghersi’s music is based off this confrontation, both with the self and the outside world. Though it contains his most serene music by a stretch, Arca is the epitome of that warring nature, reaching for his innermost self to attempt at finding a balance. His loveliest record is also his most violent, a challenge to peer deep inside at the qualities that make us uncomfortable, to question societal expectations of how one should operate.”
Arca Artwork:
Arca Tracklist:
01. Piel
02. Anoche
03. Saunter
04. Urchin
05. Reverie
06. Castration
07. Sin Rumbo
08. Coraje
09. Whip
10. Desafío
11. Fugaces
12. Miel
13. Child
