Bleep

Colombian electronic artist Ela Minus and New York-based DJ and producer DJ Python (Brian Piñyero) have teamed up for their first collaboration, the ♡ (referred to as “corazón”) EP, due out September 16 on Smugglers Way, Domino’s new dance and electronic-focused imprint. The three poignant songs of ♡ feature DJ Python’s immersive, ebbing instrumentals and Ela Minus singing about the liberation, intimacy and mutuality that blooms in love.

Today the duo share the EP’s first single “Pájaros en Verano” (“birds in summer”), a celebratory incantation written by Ela Minus in response to the isolation of the pandemic. “I made a list of things I was grateful for,” she says, “Clouds (and the time to look at them), quietness, sleep, books, food. I wanted to celebrate that ‘after all the days that never happened and the nights that didn't exist,’ we are here, alive, and together.”

“We literally didn't talk about how the tracks should sound,” Python says. “I sent her instrumentals and she sent them back with perfect vocals. It was this unspoken communication, a process to know the self and the other endlessly.”

Ela Minus released her subversive debut LP acts of rebellion in 2020 on Domino. The record won acclaim for its cerebral brand of dance music and was hailed as “a debut album of electro-pop that's brawny, brainy, and boundless” by The Fader. DJ Python has developed his ambient reggaeton sound throughout three innovative full-lengths - including Mas Amable, named Resident Advisor’s #1 album of 2020 - and, most recently, his Club Sentimientos Vol. 2 EP, which Pitchfork called “a meditative, airy paradise of sound that glides high above the rhythms below. It’s a pleasure to watch him soar.”

♡ is the fruit of a budding friendship. After Ela Minus commissioned DJ Python to create an official remix for acts of rebellion, they began texting each other book excerpts, film recommendations, and song links. “We always have philosophical conversations about love, living, or places to live,” says Python. Some of the music they exchanged included Tricky’s debut album, the pop-new wave sounds of Belgian band Bernthøler, and the English electronic musician Leila. But it wasn’t until Python introduced Minus to Witch, a 1993 album by the cult trip-hop experimentalist and poet Leslie Winer, that the spark for musical collaboration flared.

♡ is an avowal of love as a radical, everlasting practice. Minus and Python imagine love as an act of affirmation and generosity, a pursuit of reciprocity free of control. Python created the instrumentals primarily with an Octatrack sampler and a Virus TI Snow digital synth, and Minus wrote all of the lyrics and vocal melodies. Minus explains that focusing exclusively on lyrics and vocals was refreshing, since she’s accustomed to producing her own songs. “It’s way more intimate and vulnerable,” she says. “I want people to listen to the songs and feel like I’m holding onto them. I’m giving people a place in this EP where they can feel like they belong.”