Mabe Fratti carves labyrinthian soundscapes that mesmerize and intrigue in equal measure. Raised in Guatemala City, Fratti began playing cello at age eight. She’s since relocated to Mexico City, where she’s become an integral part of the fertile local avant-garde music scene. Over the course of four albums and several collaborative records with the likes of German DJ Gudrun Gut and Mexican folk-rock band Belafonte Sensacional, she’s honed a singular artistic approach.
Fratti uses electronic effects to process her cello and build scaffolding loops, often adding intertwining layers of synthesizers. (On last year’s Sentir Que No Sabes, whose title translates to “Feeling Like You Don’t Know,” her band also includes guitar, piano, drums, and trumpet.) Sometimes she sings wordlessly, sometimes in Spanish, and her arrangements often treat her voice like another textural element in their sonic space; she bends and elongates her words in murmurs and chants, like poetic conjurations shaped to fit pop-infused melodies. Fratti’s heady universe is immersive and revelatory, filled with moments of ethereal beauty and contrasting eruptions of deliberate dissonance. She gives us the refreshing opportunity to explore sentiments and contemplate questions, and she doesn’t demand certainty or resolution. On “Pantalla Azul,” Fratti sings, “What to do with all these pieces? / To await a miracle.”
Mabe Fratti Diles Que No Me Maten and Sing Leaf open. Sat 4/5, 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $20, 21+