As the Berlin musician, networker and label operator Gudrun Good (of Malaria fame) together with Mabe Fratti, avant-garde musician from Mexico City, during the 2021 pandemic released the duo album “Let’s Talk about the Weather”.many have asked themselves: Mabe who? The work was published on the 15th birthday of the indie label Umor Rex, which, like Gudrun Gut, also works along the Mexico-Berlin axis and has already released several collaborative works.
Anyone who has a penchant for slightly offbeat and forward-looking pop can’t ignore the experimental musician Mabe Fratti, who grew up in Guatemala. The 33-year-old cellist and singer recently made a guest appearance in the song “I Can Go”, a cut from Album “Essex Honey” by British hypnagogic pop star Blood Orange.
But Mabe Fratti, that shows “Hagen”, the second album of their duo Titanicyou also have to evaluate it in the context of your own work and it’s always about more than just avant-garde. Under the alias Titanic, the artist works with her creative and romantic partner, the Venezuelan guitarist Héctor Tosta.
We would like to show you external content here. You decide whether you also want to see this element:
The predecessor “Vidrio” (2023) sounded more post-minimalist, but this time the two manage to spin pop songs from unusual ingredients, sometimes with catchy tunes.
Fluffy dream pop
The songs, which are accessible despite all their whimsy, contain a variety of things, from prog-rock sounding guitars to fluffy dream pop. The training at the conservatory that both Tosta and Fratti underwent rubs against a punk energy: chamber jazz and art pop come together impetuously – and yet sound smooth, almost elegant in the songs.
In the piece „Digging Dimensions“ For example, a sparse beat initially opens up space. Then new sounds are added to the groove. This is driven by the frenetic interplay of Tosta’s electric guitar and Fratti’s plucked cello, also carried by her airy voice. In other tracks too, her singing protects the dense sound from being overloaded and creates lightness.
No wonder that the listener is sometimes reminded of the New Yorker Arthur Russell, who also used the cello as his signature instrument to build bridges between folk, Disco und Downtown-Avantgarde. Also the experimental late work of the British art pop band Talk Talk often appears as a reference point when classifying Fratti’s work – although her work is much more fun.
Improvising in the Pentecostal Church
This also applies to you free-spirited people Soloalbum „Feeling That You Don’t Know“ (2024), also a big step out of the avant-garde niche. She had her musical socialization in her parents’ Pentecostal church. There she also learned to improvise. Playing music “felt so good – it was like I was floating,” she told the US online magazine Pitchfork.
But when she fell away from the faith in her teens, she realized that ecstasy is not provided by God, but by music. She tried out all sorts of genres, from reggae to post-rock. In 2016 she was invited to Mexico City for a scholarship by the Goethe Institute. There Mabe Fratti joined the city’s lively avant-garde scene – and soon went there entirely.
Since then, the busy musician has been involved in a wide variety of contexts: in the jazzy minimalism of New York trombonist (and Arthur Russell accompanist) Peter Zummo as well as the straightforward sound of the Mexican neo-Krautrock combo Sei Still. Influences that also appear in Mabe Fratti’s solo work via Bande. The emotional singing in her native language provides flow and the necessary glue.
Titanic: „Hagen“ (Unheard of Hope/Word&Sound)
In Costa she has a creative partner who also knows how to balance a snotty sense of adventure with mischievous elegance. And on stage, the chemistry between the two is remarkable, as they recently showed on tour with a band. A lot can still be expected from Titanic and Mabe Fratti, whether as a duo or as a soloist.