Oriana Gidi’s ‘iloteca’ arrives with the kind of confidence that makes you wonder why everyone else is still making music like they are filling out a form. At only 23, Gidi has already wandered through film, television, theatre, contemporary art and music, and thankfully none of those experiences seem to have convinced her that albums need to fit neatly into a genre box. ‘iloteca’ is curious, playful, cinematic and occasionally delightfully peculiar, which is precisely why it works. This is music that wants to explore the room rather than stand politely in the corner waiting for someone to describe it as atmospheric.
From the opening moments of Frozen Spiderwebs, Gidi makes it obvious that she has an unusually sharp ear for arrangement. Piano and voice move together with almost suspicious precision while the surrounding production quietly adds layers of texture and detail. The beauty here is that the complexity never feels like homework. Gidi understands that an adventurous composition can still have a pulse, a melody and an emotional center. The result is intimate enough to feel personal while expansive enough to suggest that the walls have quietly disappeared.
‘Blue Bin Boy’ is where ‘iloteca’ really starts showing off, and honestly, it has every right to. Minimal percussion creates the framework while harmonies and melodic fragments weave around one another like they have somewhere more interesting to be. Gidi’s voice gives the track its human anchor, keeping the song from floating completely into the experimental ether. The clever part is how effortlessly she balances precision with looseness. It sounds composed without sounding stiff, sophisticated without becoming pretentious, and strange without trying desperately to convince you that strange automatically means important.
Then comes ‘Gambler’, which throws a little jazz into the machinery and happily refuses to explain itself. Its shifting rhythms and cinematic movement make the song feel like it could soundtrack a brilliantly awkward art film where nobody knows exactly what is happening but everybody agrees it looks fantastic. For Better takes the opposite route, beginning with restrained piano before gradually opening into orchestral territory. That contrast reveals the emotional intelligence underneath Gidi’s eccentricity. She is not piling sounds together simply because she can. Each choice appears to serve the mood, and that distinction is what separates genuine experimentation from an expensive pile of studio furniture.
Ultimately, ‘iloteca’ feels like an artist discovering just how much freedom she has and deciding to use all of it. Built from fragments, sketches, voice notes, environmental sounds and instinct, the album has the appealingly unfinished quality of something that grew organically instead of being assembled by committee. Gidi has created a world that is melodic without being predictable, experimental without being exhausting and cinematic without disappearing into soundtrack territory. Indie music could use more records this fearless and this genuinely curious. ‘iloteca’ does not ask permission to be unusual, and frankly, it is much better for it.
Q&A
How does your Mexican heritage influence your music?
Probably the same way being a woman does, they’re important parts of my identity that have shaped my experience of the world and therefore subtly inform everything I create. But it’s not that I’m actively writing about being Mexican, or that there’s necessarily a direct influence in terms of style and genre. I’m writing more and more in Spanish, so there’s definitely that.
And the fact that growing up in Mexico City, with all its beauty, cultural richness and chaos provides an endless source of inspiration and creativity.
You can tell by the sound of your work that you have experience with cinema and scoring. How did you get into that world?
The moment I realized that was a specific job you could do, I knew I wanted to do it. The score that first got me obsessed with film music was Thomas Newman’s score for “A Series of Unfortunate Events”. It taught me the incredibly important role music can have in telling a story, setting the tone, and even completely changing your emotional experience of a film. The more I’ve been lucky enough to do this job, the more I gravitate towards cinematic textures and production choices in my own music.
What are some of your favorite field recordings on this project, and where did you capture them?
I used a recording of a little stream I came across during a hike quite a bit, especially in “For Better”. I love the water sounds because you can do so much with them; pitch them, reverse them, stretch them out, etc. I also recorded my cat purring and used it in one of the songs as a little layer of texture, that’s probably my second favorite.
This feels like a vulnerable release at times, is that a natural emotion for you to convey or is it difficult to put yourself out there in that manner?
I think it’s pretty natural for me. I’m a very sensitive human being, and I like that about myself. I always want to feel deeply and let myself be attuned and affected by my surroundings. The alternative is shutting everything out, and I don’t want to do that. So I think that vulnerability is just me openly and honestly exploring the things that I find interesting, whether that be a made up story about spiders and trees or my own thoughts and feelings.
Who are some of your favorite non-traditional, experimental, or jazz influences?
So many! I love Moondog, Juana Molina, Tigran Hamasyan, and this one guy called Doug Seidel, who has 5 monthly listeners and like 10 incredible (and very trippy) albums. All I know about him is that he builds his own modular synths, and he lives with his goat somewhere. I think that’s pretty cool.
Any plans to play this music live this year?
Yes! I just played an album release show a few weeks ago and I’m playing another show on August 13th, opening for an artist I love, called El David Aguilar. I’ll be announcing any more live dates on my Instagram @orianagidi so feel free to follow along there!
About Oriana Gidi
At just 23, Gidi has already built a formidable multidisciplinary career spanning film, television, theatre and contemporary art. Born in Mexico City and having studied music in California before specialising in film scoring in Paris, her work has consistently moved between mediums and contexts. Her credits include co-scoring the HBO documentary MUXES alongside Leo Heiblum, performing with Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective at the Centre Pompidou, and composing a 43-minute experimental piece for artist Leopoldo Gout’s exhibition at Povos Gallery in Chicago. She is currently developing an 80-minute score for Gout’s upcoming installation, set to premiere in New York next year.
Alongside her film and installation work, Gidi has scored a wide range of short films across genres, from political thrillers to stop-motion comedies and live-action drama, and has released both an EP and her debut album ‘Fairies Berries’ independently.
With ‘iloteca’, Gidi fully steps into the role of auteur. The album is entirely self-produced and driven by an instinctive, exploratory approach to songwriting and sound design. Built from fragments of lyric ideas, voice notes, and sketches collected over a year, the record evolves into a dense, organic world shaped by initiative and environment. Field recordings and natural textures subtly weave through vibrant percussion, layered harmonies and playful melodic structures.
Opening track ‘Frozen Spiderwebs’ immediately establishes the album’s sonic identity – delicate yet intricate, with piano lines that closely shadow the vocal melody and arrangements that reveal a meticulous compositional sensibility. It sets the tone for a record that feels both intimate and expansive.
Lead single ‘Blue Bin Boy’ highlights Gidi’s instinct for contrast and clarity within complexity. Minimalist percussion underpins a lush web of harmonies and melodic interplay, creating a sense of movement that feels both controlled and fluid. Across the track, Gidi’s voice anchors a sound world that is both precise and emotionally open, evoking a lineage that nods loosely to artists such as Laura Marling and Frank Zappa, while remaining distinctly her own.
Elsewhere, ‘Gambler’ introduces a jazz-inflected energy, shifting between time signatures with an unpredictable, cinematic flow, while ‘For Better’ offers a restrained piano-led ballad that gradually expands into orchestral textures, revealing the emotional breadth at the core of the record.
‘iloteca’ is the result of a year-long process of experimentation, collaboration and creative freedom. Emerging from scattered lyrical sketches and spontaneous recordings, the album gradually took shape through Gidi’s instinctive production approach and a network of close collaborators who helped translate her vision into a fully realised sonic world.
Ultimately, ‘iloteca’ stands as a confident statement of artistic identity. A work defined not by constraint, but by openness, curiosity and joy in the act of creation.
LINKS:
https://www.instagram.com/orianagidi/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7xN8udP2JZrrZPJSQIdGTr