This week’s two-fer was prompted by Adam Koford, who used the track “Siestas ahí” by Juana Molina as background for one of his posts. I was immediately fascinated by it.
I was also fascinated by Molina’s story, who was a sketch comedy actress in Argentina before giving it up to become a musician. So far, I’ve only heard a few of her other tracks and seen a couple of her videos, but there’s a fantastic sense of experimentation and sense of humor. “Siestas ahí” is from her upcoming album DOGA, and I can’t wait to hear the rest of it.
It immediately reminded me of when I was obsessed with Cowboy Bebop and the music of Yoko Kanno for that series. A lot of it is jazz-inspired, because “anime jazz” is the whole mission statement of the series, but she took advantage of the whole “anything goes” vibe to experiment with different styles as well.
Specifically, it reminded me of “Wo Qui Non Coin,” from Cowboy Bebop Blue, a track tied to Edward and performed in Japanese and French. It’s credited to Kanno’s multi-lingual alter-ego Gabriela Roman, and performed by Edward’s voice actor Aoi Tada.
The most obvious similarity is in the vocals, but there’s also a feeling of experimentation, a sense that being accessible or even charming doesn’t mean you can’t also be a little weird and avant-garde.