Persona is the stage name of Pau García Ruiz, a 22-year-old artist, musician and producer who released his debut single a couple of years ago. On ‘TANMATEIX’ Persona explored the depth of the vocoder, in the style of Bon Iver’s most stripped-down ballads. But Persona’s sound has evolved over the last couple of years, with the Barcelona-based artist being signed to Foehn Records, home of Oso Leone, Maria Coma and B1N0.
For example, Persona has embraced indie-pop in one of her best compositions, ‘Contradiccions’, included in her 2023 EP ‘Naïf’. She also does well with the ’80s prom ballad and the balance of atmosphere and melody in ‘La cançó dels nostres ulls’ – a beautiful title – is very high.
Above all, experimentation is part of Persona’s modus operandi. This artist who started by passing his voice through a vocoder filter has not stopped adulterating his voice in other ways, for example, in ‘PLORAR+++BALLAR’, in which he sounds unrecognizable… as much as a production that mixes jangle-pop guitars with a deconstructed carioca base. Or something similar.
The indiscriminate fusion of sounds has continued in ‘Pena’, where the drums are reminiscent of Radiohead and the alien voice, of Frank Ocean. This free experimentation is present in Persona’s new single released a few days ago.
‘Irte a buscar’, today’s Song of the Day, knows how to draw attention in various ways, above all, by using a marked rhythmic base that places the song in an indefinable point, between R&B and electronica. The texture of the production is an added value, and the blues guitars – filtered or not – remain fixed in that style that we once called – and I think we still call – “bedroom pop.” And it makes sense because, in this collaboration with the Costa Brava singer Claudia Allmang, Persona seeks to hide “in a little corner of (her) room,” to take refuge from a love that is beginning to blossom… and that is reciprocal. If butterflies in the stomach sounded like something, it would sound a lot like this.
