Drone/Avant-Garde/Experimental

Maulén is the brainchild of composer/musician/artist Carlos Ibarra, whose debut album  “El miedo de amar pero igual lo hago” which  means “The fear of falling in love but I still do it”. Maulén is the surname of his grandmother, a member of the Mapuche people in Chile and that means “a wet valley”. It is also his real family name.

“He takes you on a journey reminiscent of the vast landscapes of early Sigur Ros, with sensual hints of Deftones in the Passenger seat and then just throws in some Victor Jara along for the ride.”

Maulén collaborates with a multitude of artists to make art with the ambition of creating something unique, beautiful and strange.

In 2019

                         he started working on a solo record, after spending a year writing music. He recorded the music in a subterranean water cistern that has been abandoned for almost a 100 years and is located 20 meters under a small hill in Gothenburg, Sweden. This water cistern just happened to have magical natural reverbs that are up to 18 seconds long. Working in this was a true challenge because electricity was limited, it was wet, cold and full of rats and spiders. Not many recording engineers would do it, but Carlos Sepulveda (Psycore, Leather Nun) was up to the task. In 4 magical days, Carlos and drummer Stefan Johansson (Abrovinch, Jimmy Ågren), worked in this magical setting.

In 2020

                          after the recording, Carlos went to the Thar desert in India to find peace and quiet needed to write lyrics to these songs only to get stuck there during the outbreak of COVID-19. This served as a huge inspiration for the lyrics of his upcoming album: “El miedo de amar pero igual lo hago”.  The record touches the subjects of loss, heritage and the feeling of belonging or not belonging. In the end, the lyrics will be sung in Spanish, Polish, Arabic, Persian and French. 

In 2021

                           MAULÉN was awarded an artist in residency by the region of Västra Götaland to start working on his second album. A group of core musicians will spend a week in a studio in the woods to work on an interpretation of Egyptian singer Oum Khoultums classic “Enta Omry”. After the pre-production in September MAULÉN will record the album in the desert by summer 2022.

Carlos Ibarra

                                              started his career as a guitarist and songwriter in various local bands before reaching infamy and notoriety across the metal and punk scene in Europe as a guitarist/songwriter/producer of the death metal act AGE OF WOE.  He recorded 2 albums and 2 EPs with them, “INHUMANFORM” (Suicide Records 2013) and “AN ILL WIND BLOWING” (War-anthem 2016). He has also released music with TERRORSTAT, a band with members from WALK THROUGH FIRE and SERPENT OMEGA and WEFRING  with members from THE LEATHER NUN , EXHALE and PSYCORE amongst others.