"Espacios en Soledad" EP published by the Karaoke Kalk label in November 2021, is a sound document that reflects Santiago Centro very well. What caught your attention most about this recording?
"More than the recording itself, I can talk about the sound experience in the streets of downtown Santiago – mainly Paseo Ahumada. What caught my attention the most was the real fact that through sound, you can perfectly read the social and historical changes that the city was experiencing at that time, through the vendors, the absence of some sounds that were familiar to me in memory, and the presence of new sounds unknown to me, since I do not live in Chile. It seemed that because of the heat, the sound waves moved more slowly, but this is purely subjective, as if the sound had a temperature. It's strange, but that perception surprised me."
In relation to sound installations, what characteristics or elements do you consider for the specific sites you select should have?
"I have not done so many sound installations, but the process is rather the other way around. One is invited to a place to make an installation, that is, I do not choose the place for its characteristics, but rather I try to recognize the characteristics of the place and to approach space in a rather phenomenological way, to recognize (through experience) space and its historical, physical, etc. and therefore sound characteristics".
It strikes me that the music you make as a DJ or as Chica & the Folder (alongside Max Loderbaur), one of its characteristics is that it sounds like a fairy tale. Could you please explain this?
"That descriptive term ‘fairy tale’ was used by a friend who wrote about Chica and The Folder's first album ("42 Mädchen", 2003). As the press quickly assimilated it in their reviews, the term was left in the media and in the bibliographic file. Then it was taken up by the DJ agency I was working for.
Rather at that time (2003) I described my productions as a form of dilettantism. Being that in general I could say that from my first productions with Max Loderbauer, through my work as a DJ, until now that I work with Field Recordings, I am always telling a story, a narrative, more than a fairy tale".
Can you tell us about WIP (Woman in Power)? Do you have projects on the way?
"Alisú, Paula Burgos and Nadine invited me to participate last year for the WIP compilation, but since then I haven't had much contact with them. I greatly admire their work and find it necessary not to lose continuity, since the first digital album It was a great start."
What memories do you have of when you were invited to join the Berlin collective Ocean Club?
"Very good memories! Thomas Fehlmann and Gudrun Gut invited me to participate in their Club, which was presented in one of the Tresor spaces. I literally learned to play in Tresor, which was already the most important Techno club in the world at that time. There was a lot of freedom, friendship, experimentation, madness and tolerance."
What artists and musical tendencies would you highlight from the current scene in Berlin?
"Difficult question, there are so many trends and artists. In general, I can say that Berlin stands out for its diversity, there are many different scenes within electronic music. In recent years I have had the pleasure of meeting and listening to many Latin American music Residents of Berlin, such as Alexandra Cárdenas (Colombia), her work focuses on the algorithmic behavior of music (Live Coding) and is a great representative of "Algorave". There is also Daniela Huerta aka DJ Baby Vulture (Mexico), her work oscillates between performance, sound design and multimedia projects. Also, Ale Hop from Perú, who composes electronic and electroacoustic music, mixing pop, avant-garde, ambient music and a complex repertoire of extended techniques for electric guitar.
I would say that experimental electronic music has had a boom in the recent years."
Could you tell us about your future projects?
"Right now, I am working with the material collected on my two trips to Punta Arenas. My intention is to make an album that includes the work I did with the Magellanic musician Eduardo Velásquez. In December 2021 I did a small studio session with Eduardo and Rafael Cheuquelaf.
Above all, it is about the material recorded (Field Recordings) during my first residency in Magallanes in 2019, where I was lucky enough to record on Navarino Island. I hope to close that project this year."
Guillermo Escudero
March 2022
Interviews 
