During the height of the pandemic, Mint Field returned home to Mexico City to record Aprender a Ser in isolation, then spent the last three years refining its sound. The mood is wistful, but never dreary. They sketch out hazy scenes, like clouds settling over a vast landscape without a stormy ending or a slinky noir film. While their previous work relied more on contrasting airy vocals with gritty guitar outbursts, Aprender a Ser leans into sleek trip-hop, with vaporous synths and Sebastian Neyra’s heavy basslines. It’s dream pop without a script.
Mint Field build a collection of shadowy tracks that blend seamlessly into each other. On “El Suspiro Cambia Todo,” radiating synths and licking reverb set a consistent atmospheric tone for the rest of the album. The group excels at fostering a specific airy reverie, and they don’t verge often from this chilled-out stupor. But on standout “Moronas,” a drum machine punches up the pace and locks in a track perfect for a vintage intergalactic video game. Mint Field pull from a popular set of ’90s influences—Portishead, Low, Mazzy Star—but they never feel too referential. The group weaves strands of its inspirations together to create their own avant-pop sound.
Frontwoman Estrella del Sol Sánchez’s hypnotic voice is at the core of the group. There’s a numbness in her drawn-out breaths. She never fully gives into her deepest emotions, so we’re left with our ear against the door, making sense of the muffled voices behind it. She was inspired by the Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser, whose vocals served more as a layer inside a song’s arrangement. And like Fraser, Sánchez is always on the verge of floating away. On “Sueño Despierto,” Sánchez’s delicate falsetto melds with a swirl of fluttering saxophones, pulling us further into her impending dream state. It’s a harmonious example of how her voice fuses with lush instrumentals–the aural equivalent of watching dollops of paint mix on a canvas.
Sánchez is a spare songwriter, relying more on the timbre of her voice to convey the songs’ emotions than lyrical complexity. Her words often repeat, soft and yearning, evoking natural ephemeral images—the leaves of an orchid wilting or a butterfly’s brief lifespan. For Sánchez, nature is a reminder of her impermanence. There aren’t huge revelations to take away from these tracks. Sánchez only grazes the surface of her inner world without much personal specificity. And the album can dwindle as its weightless charm wears off. But Mint Field are more about conjuring a feeling than spelling out a narrative. Aprender a Ser is a dream world without much explanation, but like the body settling into a chilled pool, the acclimation is worth it.
