With her Vanilla Shell EP celebrating its one-year anniversary last month, Danish-Chilean composer Molina is back with another abbreviated record in the form of the new single “Cold,” featuring vocalist Jonas Bjerre, arriving with a pair of B-sides. The brief collection of songs continues her simultaneous journey inward toward the roots of Chilean music and outward into her own unique vision of the future.
The project lands with a video for the A-side, which dreams up bizarre fantasy iconography in the tradition of Grimes and Björk to complement her subdued take on these artists’ out-there recordings. Blending ambiguous electronic sounds with the familiar drone of cello and Bjerre’s backing vocals, the track’s distinct persona may have more in common with the experimental soundscapes of artists like Jenny Hval or Julia Holter.
Watch the video below, and hear a playlist the artist cobbled together listing some of her aesthetic influences, from the garbled dream pop of Cocteau Twins to the complex compositions of Philip Glass.
Victor Jara, “Gira Gira Girasol”
This song has such a beautiful melody with Victor’s clean and fragile voice. It blends well with the instrumentation and the sounds of the guitars that wrap around the melody and the voice.
Dean Blunt, “Seven Seals of Affirmation”
An amazing, simple song with swirling guitar and the sound of water, which captures my imagination.
Victor Jara, “Angelita Huenuman”
Victor’s vocals are immersive and present, but at the same time incredibly understated in an honest way. There is room for the vocals in focus, and I love that there are few rhythmic elements that follow the guitar’s pulse.
Cocteau Twins, “Ivo”
Very beautiful, longing voices, which fly around in the soundscape with power and fragility. The blurry chorus guitar forms a solid ground under the voices.
Tirzah, “Guilty”
There is something incredibly present about this song because it is so simply built and has a very beautiful immediacy that I find really inspiring. It’s exciting to feel this warmth and immediacy along with the synthetic soundscape.
Philip Glass, “Part 1”
Fantastic, beautiful melody sequences that slide in and out of each other and develop into new melodies in interaction with each other. I have always been very interested in this number, partly because I have a weakness for wind instruments, but also because it lingers in the same universe and the same sounds for so long that it feels like you are being swallowed up.
Pia Raug, “Zirkler”
All of the elements are warm and airy in texture. Beautiful understated roles, each of which has their place very clearly in this soundscape.
Cocteau Twins, “Feet-like fins”
I’m really fascinated by Elizabeth Fraser’s voice and how it evokes so many emotions, even without hearing the lyrics clearly and without knowing the meaning.
Dean Blunt, “Flaxen”
The repetitive and patient melody course, which along the way is engulfed by synthetic piano and voices is absolutely fantastic.
Victor Jara, “El Aparecido”
There is something anxious about his voice, which throws itself in and propagates in my body. I feel like I long for something when I hear this song, and therefore it makes me feel whole to release my own interpretation of this beautiful song.
