Alquimia

Mexican-born Alquima merges Latin music traditions with futuristic electronics. Her core recordings begin with vocals and piano, after which she builds depth through looped vocals, electronic processors, sound effects, samples, synthesizers, gongs and bells. The resulting style unites Latin American musical heritage with elements drawn from rock, pop, avant-garde, classical and improvisational music. Audion magazine observed, "Alquima aims to dazzle, entrance , relax and excite, and, does so on all counts." Her first release, Coatlicue: Goddess of the Earth, appeared in 1992 and contained a nine-part title track alongside five separate compositions. Wings of Perception, issued in 1995, drew inspiration from what she described to an interviewer as "my experiences in the Yucatan region of Mexico, the mysticism of the ancient temples and my reading of the works of Carlos Castaneda." She created her third album, Dead Tongues, in 1996 alongside Mexican composer Jose Luis Fernandez Ledesma, whose contributions encompassed Fender Rhodes, synthesizers, percussion, voices, shells, flutes and electronic sounds. A daily Mexican newspaper hailed Dead Tongues as "the best Mexican album of its kind this decade." Alquima alternates between periods of musical and mystical study in London and sessions of composition and recording at her personal studios in London and Mexico City.