Buenos Aires artist Kaleema has become a key player in her country’s current electronic music scene (check her feature on Waxploitation’s recent Future Sounds from Argentina compilation for proof). It’s been over a year since the producer, musician, composer, and DJ, born Heidi Lewandowski, announced she was nearly done with her debut album. After taking time to properly mix it and finding the right label to release it on, we’ll finally be able to hear Nómada in full on July 17.
Ahead of its release, we’re premiering “Copal,” Kaleema’s collaboration with Colombian artist and Polaris Music Prize nominee Lido Pimienta. The song is a bubble of deep and sparse beats you can sink into. Violin draws and flute flourishes fly by like shooting stars over rubbery synth bass and crunchy percussion. Right in the middle stand Pimienta’s vocals, magnetic siren calls whose bittersweet lyrics hit hard.
About the collaboration, which took quite some time due to the distance, Kaleema says, “I met Lido in Toronto and there was an automatic affection and understanding between each other; that’s why we decided to collaborate together. I did a remix of her song ‘La Capacidad,’ and asked her to work on ‘Copal’s instrumental track – which already had that name and inspired Lido’s lyrics.”
Besides Pimienta, Nómada features guest spots from friends who share her affinity towards the clash of folkloric sounds and electronic music, like Chancha Via Circuito and Sara Hebe. “I think my love for organic sounds is intrinsically tied to my love for nature and acoustic instruments, like strings, woodwinds, and percussion,” says Lewandowski. “I also love synthesizers and I try to find and personalize sounds on each song so they can fit properly and uniquely on that context.”
Nómada is out July 17 on Tropical Twista Records.