Playlists

At the age of 12, I was given my first electric bass guitar. It was a knockoff black Fender Squier, and I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. After school, I would play the same two or three Iron Maiden songs over and over again, as much as any teenager could afford. But I wasn’t good at it, or at least not as good as some of my musically talented friends. I didn't have an amplifier, which may have contributed to my not even knowing what I was playing. But I wasn't trying to be the best, either. The bass guitar was a device— or a game—to create this strange yet grounding force: rhythm.

With a few precise beats, it brought everything into shared patterns.

And that is magic to me.

To this day, I enjoy sharing patterns with others. Now, I mostly make eclectic playlists. Enya, Blondie, Don Omar, Phil Collins, Rachmaninoff, Sergio Vargas, and Kraftwerk were all part of my teenage soundscape.

Instead of genre puritanism, what matters is that sounds and bodies can find forms together. I like to imagine my playlists as affective architectures, felt spaces that anchor bodies in motion. 

They are also experiments in bringing people together into (un)common(ing) experiences.

Here, I will share a few of my playlists. They tend to be long (3-5 hours) and lack an internal order, so I suggest listening to them on Shuffle. Have you read about the history and political economy of the Shuffle feature?

• Fellini on the Dancefloor

A dreamlike disco spirale of synths and pan-linguistic seduction. Think shimmering bodies, velvet nights. Best played with a drink in hand and your feet slightly out of sync.

• Voyage 3,000

A playlist designed to help you step away from life and escape to another world. Neither acoustic nor synthetic, it weaves together repetitions, patterns, and intensities to take you elsewhere.

• Writing

A playlist perfect for when you need to sit down and get into the zone. Piano pieces with no recognizable melodies, no voices—just pure focus for your writing.

• Sabroso

It's Saturday on a summer weekend, and you're driving back from Black Sands Beach, CA.

• Abstract space

This one is for late evenings or when you need to zero in on a task without interruptions. Imagine a white box in the middle of nowhere, an abstract space that lets you concentrate.

• Refrains & intensities

A playlist for moments when you need to go elsewhere so you spin in circles until your core becomes your line of flight. Rhythmic patterns delineating territories in a field of chaos, through repetition and variations in intensity. Expect unexpected textures—sonic, affective, and otherwise.

• Brain food

For focus and deep attention. Pulses, tones, and textures to quiet the noise and carry you inward. Best with headphones, steady breath, and no destination.