Guatemalan cellist and composer Mabe Fratti has unveiled a new song with the release of “No se ve desde acá,” the latest preview of her third album Se Ve Desde Aquí which will be released on Oct. 14. True to her flair for instrumental experimentation the song tweaks an expected cyclical structure of chorus-verse-chorus into something that more resembles a linear journey. Searingly ethereal, the wry instrumentals and disconnected compartments of sound that are delivered on “No se ve desde acá” are hard to shake.
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As the track begins the droning awe of mellotrons fills the dark nothingness, offering their wholly melancholic and somber tones until Fratti’s crystalline vocals emerge. It’s out of her trills that the rest of the song comes into being — slowly at first — but soon strident strings can be heard being struck by her bow. While in the background the percussion was provided by Gibrán Andrade, who was told by Fratti to just create “small packages of sound” for the song, bursts in lively spurts that keep the whole airy melody afloat.
As the song progresses out of the initial triumphant verse into the “place of discovery” she refers to the chorus as, the song’s encore kicks in. A transcendent harmony of vocals swells on the denouement —serving as a representation of peace and sanctuary — but it doesn’t last long. Eventually, the mesmeric echo of the mellotron returns, and everything is thrust back into that doleful world once more.
The whole process is indicative of both the song and the album’s themes, of which the two appear antithetical to one another. With “No se ve desde acá” reveals that sometimes a destination, no matter how desired, is neither itself in sight nor is a clear path to it.
“It has many parts and maybe it is one of my favorite ones from the album,” Fratti said of the single. “As the song developed, the first minutes made me imagine a landscape, relating it to the topic I wanted to talk about in the album: of the many ways of becoming, or reconfiguring, or changing and seeing something from afar, and wanting to achieve or reach it.”
Se Ve Desde Aquí the new album from Mabe Fratti is out October 14 via Unheard of Hope, pre-order here.
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Words by Steven Ward
Listen to the new single from Mabe Fratti “No se ve desde acá” below!
