Arca Drops 100 Remixes of 'Riquiquí'

Not to be easily outdone, 2020 has also been a banner year for Arca. The Venezuelan experimental artist, producer and performer marked her return this year with a sprawling 62-minute single, "@@@@@," before most notably releasing the first installment in a series of planned albums with the Grammy-nominated, KiCk i. Having since followed it up with a few intermittent singles popping up on a few charity compilations and sporadic livestreams, it feels fitting that Arca would round off the year with 100 remixes of her single "Riquiquí" just for good measure.

Related | Arca: Embracing the Flux

Using Bronze, a generative audio AI, Arca created the remixes by feeding the various parts of "Riquiquí" through the software yielding 100 different permutations, or "instances," of the track — ranging from subtle rearrangements and variations to abstracted reworks. Extrapolating the two minute and 40 second album cut into a five hour and 50 minute kinetic tesseract, the release offers a fraction of the immense scope machine learning tools like Bronze can provide artists while keeping in line with themes of shape-shifting, flux and futurism that Arca specifically explores on KiCk i. (For those who have ever seen the artist freestyle on a pair of CDJs, this process of chopping up, rearranging and collaging her work on the fly isn't out of character for Arca).

Related | Arca Collaborated With AI on Music for MoMA's Lobby

While it isn't the first time that Arca has worked with Bronze (the two previously partnered on a continuously evolving score for MoMA's lobby in collaboration with Philippe Parreno and Nicolas Becker late last year) this remix package does mark the first time the artist has ever put out an official remix of her work. "There existed 0 official remixes to an Arca track until today," she writes in a press release. "I had the idea to make the album art for 'Riquiquí' a QR code that functioned as an instant gateway to a forever-mutating instance of the song. On all streaming platforms you'll be able to hear 100 unique instances if you will. A prometheus flame."

Stream Arca's new remix package, Riquiquí;Bronze-Instances(1-100), below, out now on all streaming platforms.

Photography: Bruno Straub