''Madre'' () is an

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

by Venezuelan artist Arca. It was released on 22 January 2021 by

XL Recordings XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been ran and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group. Although only releasing an average of six album ...

. It includes the title track featuring Oliver Coates and three remixes by Arca. "Madre" was featured on an episode of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

teen drama In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

''Euphoria''.

Composition

Alejandra Ghersi, also known as Arca, wrote "Madre" years ago, in 2016. In 2018, a music video was filmed in collaboration with PRADA and SSENSE. This video had been edited and a now deleted snippet of the final video was uploaded. The original filming of the video, via cameras in the shooting location, was uploaded on youtube via SSENSE, featuring the track Tormenta playing on loop. The following year, Arca would have a similar shoot over 4 days titled Mutant;Faith. The Epilogue, titled Boundry, was released as Time on KiCk i. This EP is considered part of the KICK series, including it the official KICK spotify playlist between KiCk i and KICK ii. She worked on the song for nine days, "playing very softly against it over and over in improvised strokes until a harmony and rhythm started to present itself, like a ghost orchestra at the back of a cathedral, barely raising above a whisper but also enveloping in terms of space and density." She played the cello for "Madreviolo" and destroyed the instrument immediately after, because "it had to be like a one-time thing for the version where I pitched up my vocal to castrati registers." She then brought on Oliver Coates to create an arrangement of the unprocessed a cappella version. Arca said that "with Oliver there was an insane resonance and chemistry; where he took it felt like the place I dreamed of but couldn't reach without him."

Critical reception

Reviewing the first track, Isabelia Herrera of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' said "on the first track of her new

maxi-single A maxi single or maxi-single (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. The first maxi singles Mungo Jerry's first single, "In the Summertime" was the ...

, cellist Oliver Coates'

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

bloom into doleful tendrils and Arca's forlorn vocals curl into a delicate

aria In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

. But a closer listen reveals something far from the

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l: the sense of capacious longing so central to

boleros Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

tonada The ''tonada'' is a folk music style of Spain and some countries of Hispanic America (mainly Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela). In nowadays Spain, the traditional sung piece known as ''tonada'' is considered as having been originated i ...

s, and other styles of

Latin American Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-eth ...

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

Track listing

All tracks written and produced by Alejandra Ghersi, except for "Madre", co-written by Ghersi and Oliver Coates.

Personnel

Credits adapted from

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

. * Arca – vocals, production, mixing * Oliver Coates – arrangement (track 1) * Enyang Urbiks – engineer (tracks 1–2) * Alex Epton – mixing (tracks 1–2) * Joe Lambert – engineer (tracks 3–4)

References

{{Euphoria (American TV series) 2021 EPs Arca (musician) albums Albums produced by Arca (musician) XL Recordings EPs