Arca signs to XL and sings beautifully on new track

Arca has signed to XL Recordings, announced a new album, and released a new track called “Piel” – a piece of music that signals the opening of a new chapter for the indomitable creative force. For the first time on record, he’s singing. The close, intimate vocal suggests that, as he will always do on his records, finding new ways to bare his soul. Tellingly, the album is called Arca (rather than Reverie, as previously announced), hinting that this will be his truest voyage of self-discovery to date.

“Here’s my voice and all my guts: feel free to judge it,” says Arca of the record in a statement accompanying the release. “It’s like a bullfight: you’re watching emotional violence for pleasure. So this is a character who, almost as a mockery of the transaction, goes uncomfortably deep, into self-mutilation. ‘You want gore? Here’s gore.’”

Jesse Kanda, Arca’s longtime collaborator and close friend, has once again designed the artwork for the album. Listen to “Piel” and check the tracklist for Arca below.