Soledad Vélez | en

Surrounded by her father's jazz and blues records in her childhood home of Concepcion, Chile, Soledad Vélez began to play guitar and sing at the age of 13, usually accompanying what was on the turntable. A few years later, she started a short-lived teen rock band with her sister---then moved to Argentina to pursue songwriting before being convinced by musician friends to relocate to Valencia, Spain. There, she sang in a jazz quartet before deciding to concentrate solely and exclusively on her own songs for the first time.

In 2010, Vélez released "Four Reasons to Sing", her four-song, home studio-recorded debut EP. Her follow-up EP, "Black Light in the Forest", was recorded at La Mina's music studies in Seville in 2011---that year, she played at huge Spanish festivals such as Día de la Música, FIB and Primavera Sound, taking the region by storm.

"Wild Fishing" is her first full-length, as well as her first release with Absolute Beginners. Intense and propulsive, the album is a beautiful document of a woman whose stunningly penetrative voice is ready to capture the interest of a whole new set of receptive listeners across the globe. .