“Tú – El Borde de Mi Arista” (Montañera song)

Montañera aka María Mónica Gutiérrez floats in the slow flutter of swells and flourishes of textured, rhythmic tone on her single “Tú – El Borde de Mi Arista.” The track from her new album A Flor de Piel (released November 17, 2023 on Western Vinyl) examines the immigrant experience. The name of the song translates loosely into “You – The Edge of My Edge” in English. But more poetically, perhaps, the line of intersection between people and cultures and the arbitrary lines and boundaries we draw between people and cultures even when there’s overlap geographically, culturally and historically. The song’s tones are soft, gentle and enveloping and Gutiérrez’s vocals inviting and warm. There is a circular flow to the rhythms like a hypnotic frequency that is layered throughout and about which the atmospherics drift and reiterate as though guided by the words. Musically it fuses an environmental ambient aesthetic with a New Age pop feel akin to some of the later cosmic jazz compositions of Alice Coltrane. Whatever its roots of inspiration and direct or indirect meanings the song conveys a sense that the immigrant experience is rich and offers much to the nations where immigrants land and expands the reach and influence of the cultures from which they come as part of the grand vista of the human experiment on earth. Listen to “Tú – El Borde de Mi Arista” on YouTube and follow Montañera at the links below.