ARGENTINE ARTIST Juana Molina is a masterful creator of hypnotic, loop-infused pop music. Using both manual and mechanical means, Molina creates evolving patterns of wordless vocals and flowing guitar lines that interconnect and flower into dramatic song form.

Sprinkled with flourishes of synthesized flutes and minimal percussion, the end result is a kind of otherworldly world music — organic in structure and recognizably earthbound but unlike anything this planet has yet produced. On "Un Dia," Molina's most recent, fifth album, Molina dispenses with common language and lets the music work its magic.

"I got tired of words," says Molina matter-of-factly. "I think sometimes lyrics make the music concrete; its scope gets narrower. So I just sing for the sound."

Molina, who has played guitar since she was five, also says she no longer solely relies on the six-string to jumpstart the creative process and now consults a computer as well. But her songwriting approach remains ever intuitive.
"When I'm programming a sound on the keyboard it tells me what to do with it and the sound comes to life," she says. "It's the closest state to what I think Zen is."

Molina was raised in a musical family and later enjoyed a short-lived acting career, for which she is still best known in Latin America. However, recent tours with Feist and steady support from hip indie label Domino Records have raised her musical profile considerably. And with eclectic artists like Bjork and Joanna Newsom saturating the spotlight, it's not surprising that music fans are flocking to Molina's spellbinding sounds.

The artist makes her way to Iota Saturday, joined for the first time on a U.S. tour with a bassist and drummer. She says she still plans to employ technology to do some live looping, but insists nothing is ever pre-recorded or triggered.

"I feel like a slave to the tempo when I do that," she says, adding that her latest recording consists entirely of "human loops" played tirelessly over and over again.

Molina says one day she would like to travel to Africa to explore the continent's rich rhythmic heritage—"I would collaborate with the pygmies," she says assuredly. Of her current place in the world of music, Molina says, "I feel like a guide and a tourist at the same time."

-- Johnathan Rickman