Photo by Chad Ward
Drone/experimental solo artist MAULÉN today unveils his latest sonic masterwork, “Lo Siento.” The track, which features the powerful vocals of Sakarias Westman (A Paradise Dot), appears on Pero Igual Lo Hago, the second part of MAULÉN’s two-part EP. The final double EP, El Miedo De Amar Pero Igual Lo Hago, will be released on April 7th via Icons Creating Evil Art.
Named in honor of his grandmother, a member of the Mapuche people in Chile, MAULÉN — which translates to “a wet valley” — is the brainchild of composer/musician/artist Carlos Ibarra. Through careful collaboration with a multitude of artists, MAULÉN creates art with the ambition of manifesting something unique, beautiful, strange, and alluring. El Miedo De Amar Pero Igual Lo Hago translates to “the fear of falling in love but I still do it,” a fitting title for this compelling and ambitious piece of work.
Elaborates Ibarra on “Lo Siento,” “Sakarias Westman (A Paradise Dot) performs vocals on this track in Spanish. The song is a catchy post-metal epic with industrial vibes, like Latin Nine Inch Nails or a soundtrack to the end of the world. The lyrics are about being numb mentally and physically and the sensation of feeling like you are going to hit rock bottom and it just keeps getting worse.”
Stream MAULÉN’s “Lo Siento” at THIS LOCATION.
View MAULÉN’s stunning, nine-minute video for “Rostro,” which appears on El Miedo De Amar (Part 1 of the EP series) at THIS LOCATION.
El Miedo De Amar Pero Igual Lo Hago will be released as an exclusive 2xLP gatefold, CD, and as two digital EPs April 7th via Icons Creating Evil Art. Find ordering info at THIS LOCATION.
Carlos Ibarra began his career as a guitarist and songwriter in various local bands before reaching infamy and notoriety across the metal and punk scene in Europe as a guitarist/songwriter/producer of the death metal act Age Of Woe. With them, he recorded two albums and two EPs: Inhumanform (Suicide Records, 2013) and An Ill Wind Blowing (War-Anthem, 2016). He has also released music with Terrorstat, a band featuring members of Walk Through Fire and Serpent Omega as well as Wefring featuring members of The Leather Nun, Exhale, and Psycore, among others.
In 2019, after spending a year composing material, Ibarra began work on a solo record. He recorded the music in a subterranean water cistern that has been abandoned for almost one-hundred years and is located 20 meters under a small hill in Gothenburg, Sweden. This water cistern just happened to have magical natural reverbs that are up to eighteen seconds long. Working in this was a true challenge: electricity was limited, it was wet, cold, and full of rats and spiders. Not many recording engineers would do it, but Carlos Sepulveda (Psycore, Leather Nun) was up to the task. For four magical days, Sepulveda and drummer Stefan Johansson (Abrovinch, Jimmy Ågren), worked in this enchanting setting.
The following year, Ibarra went to the Thar desert in India to find the peace and serenity necessary to write the lyrics to these songs only to get stuck there during the outbreak of Covid-19. This served as a huge inspiration for the lyrics of his upcoming album: El Miedo De Amar Pero Igual Lo Hago. The record touches on the subjects of loss, heritage, and the feeling of belonging or not belonging with lyrics sung in Spanish, Polish, Arabic, Persian, and French.
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