The Genius of Arca
Pioneering experimental sound, Arca’s influence spans the entire spectrum of contemporary music. The Venezuelan singer has managed to create the concept of Arca, a creative presence undergoing an ever-evolving transformation from music to art.
Arca, also known as Alejandra Ghersi, was born in Venezuela in 1989. As a teenager, she moved to the United States and Canada before finally settling in New York at 17, where she attended New York University.
“Dance floors is where I found my freedom. There were a lot of colors that I was muting internally.”
Arca, interview for the The New York Times
In New York, she began performing as Nuuro, producing a combination of synth-pop and disjointed music. As she experimented with sound and explored the underground dance scene in the city, her work began to develop into the complex and thought-provoking compositions she is known for. As Nuuro, she released &&&&&, a SoundCloud audiovisual project with Jesse Kanda. During this time, Ghersi released her first two EPs under the pseudonym Arca. Stretch 1 and Stretch 2 were released in 2012 when she was a student. Fully electronic and bass-heavy, her work resembled the electronic sound that originates from Berlin. Nonetheless, there was something different about her music that hadn’t been heard before. She mixed electronic with hip-hop tendencies, pioneering a fairly new mix of genres. Her second EP gained recognition from YE, previously known as Kanye West. He invited her to work on the production of his upcoming album, Yeezus. This collaboration pushed her career forward and she began to expand her catalog. The LPs Xen and Mutant followed her newfound success. Both works are a combination of dreamlike synth and haunting industrial vocal production. In this era, Arca began opening the opportunity for the release of romantic anguish.
In 2017, Arca released a self-titled LP, a twisting dissonance of sounds and gorgeous synths fully in Spanish—Apple Music described it as work that belongs on the walls of the Guggenheim. For the first time in her career, Arca utilized her vocals to narrate poetry. This work is about shedding the chaos of identity and love through truly haunting and evocative textures. Often, English-language publications do not do this album the justice it deserves. In my opinion, it is one of the best albums in recent decades: put simply, a heartbreaking piece of literature and sound. Beginning with “Piel”, Arca hums a frail tune with high-pitched clinical ringing. The first words uttered are, (“Quítame la piel de ayer” — “Take off my skin from yesterday”). This sentence sets the entire tone for the album, one that becomes candid and vulnerable as it progresses. “Piel” is followed by “Anoche”; here, Arca confesses, “last night I dreamt about you, your figure, and your arms. Even though I haven’t met you, alone, I healed you.” Arca’s Spanish lyricism does not translate, and by attempting, the pain and terror in the original words are lost. In an interview with Pitchfork, the songs are compared to the pulsating warmth of a heartbeat. There are many gems in this album; however, there is a song that shines and encapsulates the spirit of the entire project. In “Desafío”, Arca produces her version of a piano ballad. The piano keys and cyber-esque electronic melodies search for highs and lows. There is crying, moaning, whispering, and raw and unfiltered delivery. In the end, it is one that leaves you feeling the same turmoil Arca is feeling.
Arca finds beauty in contrasts. She often talks about the creative and philosophical inspirations behind her work in high-level abstractions. Though abstract art can feel disconnected at times, Arca manages to map her backgrounds and not be ashamed of them. There is a real tangibility to Arca’s work, one that creates a close relationship with its listener. Self-titled feels like you are right there in the room with her as she is mourning. She has confessed that many of the lyrics in this project were improvised, even though they feel as if a poet wrote them centuries ago.
Ghersi explained in an interview that she chose the name Arca because it is an old Spanish word for a “ceremonial container.” Arcas are empty spaces that can be filled with meaning. Ghersi is filling her Arca with her past, present, and future.
Following her self-titled project, Arca launched a much larger undertaking. She navigates the gaps between worlds, languages, genres, and genders on KiCk i the first of a planned four-album series. KiCk i exudes a self-possessed euphoria where her earlier albums felt entrenched in despair and pain, feelings that on 2017’s Arca came forth as operatic haunted voices. Taking from her glitchy and industrial background, she refines this project into cutting-edge pop. In 2020, this album was nominated for Best Dance/Electronica Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. It was nominated for four Latin Grammy Awards in the same period, before breaking down the wall between Latin and American music. Arca’s first song, “Nonbinary,” features her at her most straightforward and pop-focused. She is fearless, confident, and only in it for the thrill: “I don’t give a fuck what you think/You don’t know me—you might owe me,” she snarls, in a way that only she can. This project features other trailblazers of the scene. SOPHIE, Björk, Shygirl, and ROSALÍA are all able to shine through the different skins Arca transforms into for every song. In this project, Arca began to experiment with her Latin roots in terms of instrumentation, incorporating reggaetón syntax and the inclusion of the traditional Venezuelan instrument furruco. Furthermore, a new visual universe is created in this series, guided by contemporary artist, Matthew Barney. She described the series as, “self-contained, mythical, almost world-building exercises that interrelate to one another.” This macrocosm of works was created in 3-D using close-up photos of her physique and is a desolate technological dystopia. Her vision for the albums came after her 2017 album, Arca. In this time period, Arca began to identify as non-binary, using the pronouns she/it/they. This transformation allowed for the flourishing of her new work.
For queer musicians and listeners, electronic music has long been a place of affirmation and inspiration. In recent years, feminist academics, performers, and journalists have explored the idea of the cyborg and its potential to liberate the body from the confinement of societal expectations of gender. It offers a means of transcending the limitations of our biological bodies and achieving greater freedom and agency in expressing our gender identities. Following the conclusion that evolutionary liberation of this sort won’t happen with our own human bodies, the blending of technology and its allowance for genderless exploration is one that scholars and pioneering artists like Arca utilize.
Her remaining projects, KiCk ii, KiCk iii, KiCk iiii, and KiCk iiiii, are refined combinations of all her previous work. These albums are meant to celebrate her present self and establish a range of freedom based on Latinx Music. Much more focused on the reggaetón influence, she masters the blend of experimental electronic subculture and traditional reggaetón. Her songs, Prada/Rakata are stamps of her youth in Venezuela. The influence is held in equilibrium between the structure and the chaos to create more accessible work without sacrificing her usual experimentation. In KiCk iii, she returns to the sound of her nights at dance clubs that shaped her beginning of adulthood. She returns to her birth as Arca, the surrealist DJ with dance music foundations,” Ghersi disclosed in an interview with Vogue Mexico.
Right now, Arca is expanding her artistic reach. This past year she has walked for Mugler, collaborated on the soundtrack for the Burberry Fashion Week Show, and scored/walked for Proenza Schouler. In terms of upcoming musical collaborations, an Ice Spice song is rumored to be in the works.
Even though this piece is nowhere close to fully covering the grandness of Arca, it is my hope that her brilliance is conveyed. Arca, much like the meaning in Spanish, will continue to search for meaning, evolving into the otherworldly artistic presence she is.
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