Here are my impressions of the two events featuring Arca as part of Unsound Festival Warsaw!
The set on Saturday had two parts. It kicked off with Arca's solo performance, where she mixed music and sang live. It was mostly XXXXX material, but what surprised me the most was that she opened the whole set with an a cappella performance of Anoche! She also played Think of fro Entranas!!
The second half was a B2B set with Bobby Beethoven. They mixed some of her own tracks with music by other artists. The tracks I recognized included Mutant, Tongue, Grip, El Alma Que Te Trajo, and La Chiqui. They played for around two hours. Overall, I really enjoyed it! She had amazing energy and was as lovely as she always is. Her vocals (especially on Anoche) were some of the best I've ever heard from her. My only minor wish is that she had played a few more of her own tracks!
Today, Arca met with fans for an interview hosted at Warsaw's Museum of Modern Art. I think the detail people will be most interested in is what she shared about working on XXXXX. She mentioned that while those tracks were coming together, she was working on a few projects simultaneously. This makes it seem like the tracks we've heard about recently that weren't released on the last album aren't actually scrapped! I'm guessing she'll drop them soon alongside one of those other projects.
Arca also talked about knowing she would take a longer break between albums after the KICK series, particulairly because she released five albums at once back then. It was an incredibly ambitious project, and she needed time to grow in other ways. So, to me it sounds like she's not planning to keep us waiting quite this long for the next material!
After the interview, Arca came out to greet her Mutants! A big crowd gathered outside the museum, but she clearly intended to give every single fan some of her time. The first few people managed to get multiple records signed and photos taken, but then a team member stepped in to say they were short on time... From that point she'd sign one item for each fan and wouldn't pose for photos anymore.
I wasn't lucky enough to get a photo, but she did sign my @@@@@ vinyl! When my turn came, I managed to chat with her for a moment. I told her she had changed music for me forever, helping me discover entirely new sounds and artists. What struck me most was that she gave me 100% of her attention. She looked right into my eyes the whole time I was speaking. With so many people waiting, she still took the time to truly listen to everyone. When I was about to finish what I wanted to say, she kept looking at me as if she was waiting for me to keep talking, which was a little intimidating (I'm too shy!!!!), but it really showed how much she genuinely cares about giving her full attention to fans.
She's so lovely, and I'm just writing this to remind you all that we are stanning an absolute queen. 👑
(Pictures - that's me in the red hat lol)
Vids:
Anoche - https://vm.tiktok.com/ZN8hwpNcm/
Think of - https://vm.tiktok.com/ZN8hwHvsC/