On “Desafío,” Arca Is Finally Happy
As Alejandro Ghersi explained in an interview with the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, his third album as Arca, is an attempt to make something beautiful from the pain and sadness he sees in the world. “If there’s a sadness running through your life,” he said, “you must attempt to tune yourself into a frequency where you harmonise with it because it’s never going to leave you.” Ghersi understands that grief which can’t be cast out must be harnessed and tamed, a feeling he captures in his album’s triumphant centerpiece, “Desafío.
This is an Arca song unlike any other, structured pop set ablaze and digitally reconstructed as an operatic ballad. However, it also feels like a culmination of his masterful production for singers such as Björk and FKA twigs. Ghersi turns himself into a chorus of waifish falsettos and wailing tenors, elevating his injured voice over sirens, distortion, and strings. High above the swells of palpitating drums, he delivers glowing harmonies with graceful power. He surrenders to the singing of his many splintered selves, and in doing so, he begins to master his demons. Translated from the Venezuelan artist’s native Spanish, “desafío” is the masculine noun “challenge,” but it can also mean “defiance.” Both feel apt to what Ghersi accomplishes. Bold and inspiring, “Desafío” is the sound of an artist taking control of his pain and, incredibly, discovering joy in the process.
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