Puerto Rican singer-songwriter iLe's last album, 2019's Almadura, was a captivatingly twitchy and restless thing, ambitiously broad even in the context of her career to date. First alongside her half-brothers Residente and Visitante as part of the chart-topping Calle 13, and later as a Grammy-winning artist in her own right, Ileana Mercedes Cabra Joglar has blended traditional melodies with unlikely rhythms and forward-thinking sounds to create what the New York Times' Jon Pareles recently described as "back-to-the-future Latin music."
Today she returns with her firs tsong since Almadura's release. "En Cantos," a collaboration with the Mexican singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade, is premiering at the top of the page alongside a lush but disconcerting video directed by Alejandro Pedrosa. The song itself leans more to the traditional side of iLe's catalog, all bolero hues and aching lyrics that walk the line between lovelorn and terrifyingly desirous. "‘En Cantos’ is a pun," iLe wrote in an email to The FADER. "It means ‘in pieces,’ and if put together as one word it means ‘enchantment’. This song is about the uncontrollable curiosity that comes from creating this ‘mystical someone’ who we believe makes us feel complete. A strong sensory feeling that moves us towards the satisfaction of fulfilling what we desire."
Joglar said that the video builds on that enchantment and compulsion. "The music video intends to portray this unreachable person that we, as characters, needed to feel closer to by distilling an enigmatic drink made from different traces of himself," she wrote.
Watch the video for "En Cantos" at the top of the page.
