A continuous generosity with the present helps in the belief that much of the intersection between indie-folk and electronic music exists as something new, an achievement that is now being discovered. Everything changes, everything is renewed, and in these trends, it is less about what is new and more about what is done and how it is done. Personality. Argentina’s Juana Aguirre has plenty of it.

Her debut album came out in 2021, Claroscuro, and last year she invented Anónimo, an album recorded in a home studio—that is, Juana Aguirre’s house—which can be aligned with Marina Herlop, Tarta Relena, Radiohead’s Kid A, or Olivia Tremor Control, without putting everything in the same bag. These relationships are not direct, but rather a matter of perception, due to the way Aguirre alludes to sounds and ideas through harmonies that evoke places where she has been happy. And if all this is new, well, it works as something new for those who have never had contact with the rest. It will have the effect of a smile.

The homely place where the album came from also fills the lyrics, common things that we can all relate to, which are more part of everyday life than a state of mind. The composer manages to bring a luminous life to these places, especially when the guitar takes on a real presence. Between anonymity and today, Juana Aguirre has done us the favor of releasing a live album, una casa sin esquinas, where the songs are transformed into warm and ghostly, beautiful and eloquent things. Juana Aguirre may not consecrate the new, a vision, but she carries an idea of “new Argentine folk” with the vigor necessary to convince us that this could be our next redemption.

AS