Mexico-based experimental cellist
Who they?
A supremely talented Guatemalan cellist now living in Mexico City. Her second album ‘Será Que Ahora Podremos Entendernos?’ (‘Will We Be Able To Understand Each Other Now?’) builds on her classical training with ambient soundscapes, a dreampop sensibility and her own transcendental vocals.
“Listening to Aphex Twin changed everything,” she explains. “But when I think about direct influences, it’s Cluster, Oneohtrix Point Never, DAF, Laurie Anderson, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Vangelis. And listening to Kate Bush’s ‘Hounds Of Love’ and Peter Gabriel’s ‘So’ – these are very inspiring.”
Why Mabe Fratti?
She lives for her art. When lockdown struck, she was holed up in La Orduña, an artist’s retreat just outside Mexico City. “I felt a peacefulness that made the process of creating the album easy,” she recalls. “I liked the birds singing in the background, and bleeding into the microphones. I also recorded some insects, and put them on the album…”
Texan sound artist Claire Rousay collaborates on exquisite lead single ‘Hacia El Vacio’. “I met her here in Mexico City,” says Mabe. “We played a couple of shows together. Once I got a track that talked about intimacy and vulnerability I thought her sounds would fit perfectly.”
Tell us more…
Experimental Mexican band Tajak also contribute to a complex but shimmeringly beautiful collection. “The album is about the use of words as an effort to change or create some reality,” adds Mabe. “And how language sometimes is a very clumsy tool… there are so many ways to say something. We use words to create some sort of spell.”
And she’s playing in London in October. Presumably she’s looking forward to it? “VERY! Cafe OTO is one of the places I’ve dreamed of playing in. I feel very lucky.”
