Arca

Alejandra Ghersi operates across multiple disciplines as a musician, producer, and visual artist, pushing boundaries in each through her Arca project. That same command of varied formats mirrored the seamless way her productions drew on disparate styles without settling into any single lane, with the signature rumbling, rattling percussion tracing back to hip-hop, noise, IDM, and Venezuelan party music. Even when lending her touch to high-profile work for figures such as Kanye West, Björk, and Frank Ocean, Ghersi’s singular method stood out clearly. Her own output ventured further still, whether twisting hip-hop elements through an unapologetically queer lens on the initial EPs or striking a careful equilibrium between experimental impulses and emotional depth on the 2014 debut album Xen. Each subsequent release marked another reinvention: Mutant in 2015 foregrounded the music’s density and volatility, while the 2017 self-titled album opened everything up through vocal outpourings, marking her first use of her own voice. The five-album Kick series unfolding across 2020 and 2021 reshaped pop into intricate yet instinctive shapes, and she extended that more approachable direction via the 2024 Tokischa collaboration “Chama.”

Ghersi was born in Caracas, Venezuela; at age three her family relocated to Connecticut before returning to Venezuela when she turned nine. Piano lessons began around then, sparking a deep attachment to the music of Aaliyah, Arthur Russell, and especially Björk. By fourteen she had absorbed the glitch-driven textures of Aphex Twin and Nine Inch Nails. That same year she launched the Nuuro project, whose emotional electro-pop drew admiration from fellow Venezuelan acts including Los Amigos Invisibles.

After studying at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Ghersi adopted the Arca moniker, drawn from an archaic Spanish term for a ceremonial vessel. The project surfaced in October 2011 through a twenty-five-minute online mix blending original material with reworked Craig David and Bilal tracks alongside orchestral, hip-hop, drum’n’bass, and Venezuelan elements. The following year brought three concise releases on the UNO label, beginning with the four-track Baron Libre EP in February. Stretch 1 arrived in April with six tracks, followed by Stretch 2 in August; both juxtaposed aggressive hip-hop textures with queer imagery. Momentum built quickly afterward. Kanye West enlisted her to co-produce four Yeezus cuts—“Hold My Liquor,” “I’m in It,” “Blood on the Leaves,” and “Send It Up”—which surfaced when the album dropped in June 2013. One month later Ghersi issued the kinetic mixtape &&&&& on Hippos in Tanks. FKA twigs’ EP2 followed in September, carrying Arca writing and production credits on every song. That October she presented &&&&& live at MoMA PS1 alongside visual artist Jesse Kanda.

Arca’s visibility rose steadily over the ensuing years. The single “Thievery” marked her Mute debut in September 2014, with the full-length Xen arriving on the label that November. Titled after Ghersi’s diary sign-off, the record earned recognition for its rumbling, restless constructions. Additional acclaim arrived for her contributions to FKA twigs’ 2014 debut LP1 as well as Björk’s Vulnicura and Kelela’s Hallucinogen EP, both released in 2015. Early that year she self-released Sheep, the Hood by Air fashion-show score incorporating samples from Björk, Lana Del Rey, and Robert Wyatt. Several of those pieces resurfaced on Mutant, the dense, demanding set Mute issued in November 2015. The 2016 Entrañas mixtape included a Mica Levi collaboration and the track “Urchin,” which later appeared on her next album. April 2017’s Arca, her first XL Recordings full-length, received widespread praise for introducing Ghersi’s vocals and for its nods to Björk alongside Venezuelan folk traditions. That year also saw reunions with Kelela on the October release Take Me Apart and with Björk on November’s Utopia.

Ghersi relocated to Barcelona in 2018 and publicly identified as non-binary. She resurfaced in September 2019 with Mutant;Faith, an ambitious cycle of three experimental live performances at The Shed’s Griffin Theater in New York City. The following February brought @@@@@, an hour-long composition among her most demanding works. Throughout the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic she streamed live sets and DJ performances. That June she released KiCk i, featuring guest appearances from SOPHIE, Rosalía, and Björk; the album balanced abrasive textures with trap, reggaeton, and pop accents, earning a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album and a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. Later in 2020 the track “Knot” emerged as the lead single from a reissued edition of the original &&&&& mixtape.

Madre, an EP recorded with producer, arranger, and cellist Oliver Coates, arrived in January 2021. That September she supplied a remix of Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s “Rain on Me” that wove in samples of “Time” and “Mequetrefe” for Gaga’s Dawn of Chromatica collection, while also unveiling “Incendio,” the first in a run of singles previewing the remaining Kick installments. The four albums completing the anthology landed in December 2021, expanding the sonic palette introduced on KiCk i. KICK ii, featuring Cardopusher, Mica Levi, and Sia, broadened Arca’s reggaeton framework; KicK iii focused on intense club material; kick iiii adopted a gentler stance with appearances from Coates, Planningtorock, and Shirley Manson; and the largely instrumental, delicate kiCK iiiii incorporated contributions from Ryuichi Sakamoto. A 2022 compilation titled Kick gathered twenty-one fan-selected tracks from the series alongside two non-album singles and three previously unreleased pieces. That year Ghersi also supplied production for FKA twigs’ mixtape Caprisongs.

In 2023 Arca served as opening act for Beyoncé’s Barcelona concert on the Renaissance tour and appeared in a video interlude screened at every show. Toward the close of 2024 she issued fresh material, first teaming with Dominican rapper Tokischa for September’s hypnotic “Chama” and then delivering a November remix of Addison Rae’s “Aquamarine.”