Talkback: Yamila

Photo: Assiah Alcázar

Spanish cellist, producer and singer Yamila employs strings, voices, field recordings and electronics, all heard to great effect on her new album Noor.

At the moment I can’t stop listening to

The truth is, right now what I hear most is my baby crying! Being a mother and a songwriter is a real challenge. Lately, because of a new project I’m really immersed in, I’ve been listening to a lot of flamenco in my spare time: El Niño de Almadén, Camarón de la Isla, La Niña de los Peines — classic flamenco singers. I’ve also been listening a lot to Amor Muere, a group of Mexican women musicians that also includes [celebrated Guatemalan cellist] Mabe Fratti. I find it super interesting how they use acoustic instruments like the cello and violin with vocals and electronics. Also, Colin Stetson’s latest album; the intensity of some of the tracks is brilliant.

The artist I’d most like to collaborate with

I would love to work with the flamenco dancer Israel Galván. He’s someone who has broken all the rules of traditional flamenco, making a very dramatic genre like flamenco into something humorous. I think he’s an artist who, like me, understands that to make art you have to play, and that it’s through play and experimentation that you find the most subversive material. He also has an unbeatable technique. Which makes him a superbly complete artist because, on the one hand, he knows perfectly how to interpret the traditional flamenco dance genre, but on the other hand, he decides to deconstruct it and create something totally abstract. He’s a bit like Picasso was with painting! There are very few artists who have managed to deconstruct a genre in the way he has, and in such a universal way.

The first thing I look for in a studio

A window. And some books. I believe, to find inspiration, that you have to know how to look inward, but also outward. I think that making art is political. As artists, we are in the present, we feel tensions, situations that maybe we just can’t explain with words. And that’s the reason we make art, isn’t it? Because we want to transform what surrounds us in some way. I believe that music and art tell us a lot about the social moment; which is why, before starting a new piece of work, I try to frame it within some kind of concern or fascination that goes beyond music. That interests me much more than a synthesizer of one brand or another, or a specific reverb or compressor. Although a good chair is also important.

The person I would consider my...