The bewitching JUANA MOLINA is back with a terrific album, in which all the various threads she's previously explored are masterfully woven together with new elements to create a mischievous, playful, joyous series of songs, brimming with surprises.

Juana has been acclaimed as a deeply original and visionary artist who, like Brian Wilson or Kevin Shields, pulls off the most out-there material with melodies nearly as accessible as conventional pop (Rolling Stone US). She has variously been described as pure genius (Les Inrockuptibles, FR), beguiling (Pitchfork, US), and is said to be one of the most extraordinary singers around (Sunday Times, UK), who is creating a slippery soundtrack for the subconscious (Spin, US) and subtle, unclassifiable sonic magic (Uncut, UK).

On her previous albums, Juana Molina deliberately used a defined, minimal array of elements (mostly guitar and layers of vocals, with some synth and percussion) to compose pieces which have gradually moved from folky acoustic songs to mesmerizing, gorgeous reveries… [and] radiant clouds of sound (the NY Times, about her latest album Un Dia).

This time, she's remarkably expanded her palette of instruments, incorporating electric guitars, bass, drums and inventive electronics, thus giving Wed 21 a richer, broader sonic spectrum. In some of the tracks, Juana comes as close to a pop song format and to a full band sound as she ever did… while some other pieces are sinuous excursions through gamuts of feelings & textures. Guided as always by her trademark spirit of experimentation and her deep melodic sense, Juana Molina has definitely come up with a masterpiece. As the album unfolds, each of the eleven songs reveals new, delightful ideas, unexpected turns and inspired atmospheres. In so many words: never a dull moment, Wed 21 is a superb, thoroughly enjoyable journey from start to finish.

As for the charming, often enigmatic lyrics: one can't help noticing the intriguing presence of a number of specimens of fauna (including a guardian bear, an insect with organs that glow like automobile headlights, and a rat suffering from compulsive hoarding disorder). Let's also pay special attention to the eerie dream in Final Feliz, and to the hilarious misfortunes of a narrator who hates noise pollution (in Ferocísimo).

Wed 21 was entirely composed, performed, recorded and produced by Juana Molina in her studio located in the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Juana loves to work solo, that's how she creates her own self-contained universe. Yet she isn't averse to exchanging musical fluids on certain occasions: she's worked with the likes of Vetiver and Vashti Bunyan, she's toured with David Byrne and Feist, and the most recent collective project she was involved with was Congotronics vs Rockers, the adventurous collaborative ensemble also featuring Konono N°1, Kasai Allstars, Deerhoof, Wildbirds & Peacedrums and the Skeletons' Matt Mehlan.
 
Initial press quotes on Wed 21: 

"On an evolutionary journey of her own devising…Transportative, like a fantastic fable…" (Pitchfork, US)
 
"On the verge of math-rock… her music still perches on the edge of delirium" (New York Times, US)
 
"Her best work yet" (Mixmag, UK)
 
"As if extra-terrestrials have had a bash at making contemporary Earthling pop music "(The Independent, UK)
 
"Eerie, hypnotic, building to increasingly haunting heights" (Spin, US)
 
"Juana Molina has stepped beyond the boundary of self to become the presiding authority for a genre" (Arts Desk, UK)
 
"If one adjective sums up Juana Molina’s recent work, it is 'dreamlike'… like other great popular music musicians who toe the avant-garde line—Tom Waits comes to mind, as does Radiohead—there is a vision here"  (Pop Matters, US)
 
"She's moved on to more colorful worlds, with buzzing electronics swarming around psychedelic rhythms, each song flooded with melody" (Uncut, UK)

"Always in motion, this effortless fusion of airy melody and playful eccentricity follows a perpetually fluid course" (Mojo, UK)

"Molina has influenced scores of folk-tronic musicians, but her songs offer a universal playfulness that’s entirely her own".  (The Washington Post, US)