Experimental Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti will release a new album, Será que ahora podremos entendernos?, meaning Will we be able to understand each other now?, in June.

Será que ahora podremos entendernos? is the result of being in the right place, at the right time, with the right people, we’re told. In early 2020, Fratti, whom we’ve featured previously, found herself staying in La Orduña, an artist space in an old factory outside of Mexico City, with her cello and other musical equipment for work on other projects. The impending lockdown saw her stay at the space for a month, alongside a host of other notable musicians from the inventive local scene. But she “didn’t feel inspired at all,” she says. “I felt like it was a terrible moment.” Almost by accident, however, an album formed.

Instigated by the time at hand and the people around her, Fratti’s feelings began to change. She found herself inspired by La Orduña, and in just the few short weeks, she had recorded the entire album.

Across the album’s nine “immersive and diverse” tracks, Fratti constructs “striking new worlds,” we’re told, all of which stemmed from those improvisations. She based each song on her idea of “diagramation,” having a start point and an endpoint, and then exploring the different journeys she could take to tie them together.

Having initially played music with her sister, Fratti went to study at a small academy, and while her sister chose to focus on the violin, she chose the saxophone, only to be told she didn’t have the breath for it. Instead, she chose to learn the cello but abandoned it after some years of academic learning. She later returned to music by playing in bands, and these experiences gave her the confidence to produce her own music in her early 20s.

While her debut album, Pies Sobre la Tierra, was an inspired collection of twisted sounds, Será… finds space for lyrical invention, focusing on human’s issues with communication. “The everyday act of communication is contradicted by the idea that communicating with others, and yourself, is never simple: it’s ultimately an absurd desire to want to be absolutely understood yet we insist to be because we have this human desire for connection,” Fratti says.

Alongside the announcement, Fratti has shared “Hacia El Vacio,” which showcases the album’s more complex side, presenting dark drone waves, spiky electronics, and shifting temperatures. “This song is about the quest to understand something that has been said and how slow the process of explaining can be,” Fratti says. “How words serve as a kind of bridge, but that finally there is a point where we can only trust that we understood.” Claire Rousay features with field recordings and cymbals, and the video, streaming below, was made by Mexican filmographer KIX.

You can read more about Fratti in her XLR8R Bubblin’ Up interview here.

Tracklisting

01. Nadie Sabe
02. Mil Formas de Decirlo
03. Hacia el Vacío
04. En Medio
05. Inicio vínculo Final
06. Aire
07. Cuerpo de Agua
08. Que Me Hace Saber Esto
09. Un día cualquiera

Será que ahora podremos entendernos LP is scheduled for June 25 release on Unheard of Hope. Meanwhile, you can stream “Hacia el Vacío” feat. Claire Rousay in full below and pre-order here.