Juana Molina Returns with 'Halo' Album, Shares "Cosoco"

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Feb 28, 2017

Nearly four years removed from her Wed 21 LP, Argentina's Juana Molina has lifted the curtain on the details behind her seventh album. Titled Halo, Molina's latest work arrives on May 5 through Crammed Discs.

Twelve tracks in length, Halo was recorded in Molina's home studio outside of Buenos Aires and at Sonic Ranch Studio in Texas. Backing her musically are live bandmates Odin Schwartz and Diego Lopez de Arcaute, in addition to Eduardo Bergallo. Deerhoof's John Dieterich is also featured on the record.

A press release notes that Halo's 12 tracks are "abound with hypnotic rhythms which seem to draw their energy from immemorial rituals; with timbral explorations and ever-changing soundscapes; with mysterious lyrics often touching on witchcraft, premonition and dreams, always used as metaphors for emotional states; with voices which sometimes move away from word and meaning to be reduced to abstract phonemes and onomatopoeia."

As for the record's artwork, which can be seen above, the press release had the following to say about the seemingly sentient bone that adorns the cover:

See the front cover of this album: a bone is looking at us! And when a bone looks at us, we're being watched by the entire history of paleontology. The bone is a sign of having been, it's the last remain, after the passage of vultures, hyenas, rodents and worms. But the bone became lever, weapon and inscription surface. And the bone is also Stanley Kubrick, that name we invented for jumping from the monkey to the superhuman, as well as from the caves to the moon, to Jupiter and beyond. In ancient folk legends, buried bones were believed to be the cause of luz mala ('evil light', also known as ghost lights or will-o'-the-wisp), that strange halo which floats above the ground and scares travelers at night. 

Read through the record's tracklisting to hear "Cosoco" in the player below. You can also pre-order the album on iTunes.

Halo:

1. Paraguaya
2. Sin dones
3. Lentísimo halo
4. In the lassa
5. Cosoco
6. Cálculos y oráculos
7. Los pies helados
8. A00 B01
9. Cara de espejo
10. Andó
11. Estalacticas
12. Al oeste

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