Aylu - Fobia (2025) [Hi-Res]

Buenos Aires musician Aylu's album "Fobia," released on Nico Jaar's Other People label, presents a quietly unsettling yet captivating blend of chamber folk and ambient music. The sound, created with a unit of players, deviates from the styles of Mabe Fratti or Lucretia Dalt, echoing Rashad Becker's "Traditional Music of Notional Species." The album is inspired by Aylu's collaborative projects over recent years, aiming to create an intimate and spiritually charged work. Initially a means for Aylu to process her personal experiences with agoraphobia and claustrophobia, and feelings of shame, she realized that mental health struggles are part of broader systems of collective suffering and injustice. Aylu shares that her issues are part of a system and emphasizes the courage required to find a way around them and the importance of open discussion to realize their larger context. The album conveys the tension between fear and joy, light and dark, through tracks like "Yodo," which echoes the suffocating feeling of claustrophobia, the lighter "Obelisco Elysium" and "Prospero" offering relief, and "El Sol Mal" with its cacophonous soundscapes, reflecting the complexities of navigating mental health challenges.

Tracklist:
1-1 Aylu - Yodo (Veneno) [3:34]
1-2 Aylu - Obelisco Elysium [3:36]
1-3 Aylu - Desaparición Incompleta [5:35]
1-4 Aylu - Via Negativa [2:56]
1-5 Aylu - Prospero [7:37]
1-6 Aylu - El Sol Mal [2:23]
1-7 Aylu - Somitas [2:53]
1-8 Aylu - Cometierra [7:14]
1-9 Aylu - Yodo (Remedio) [2:03]