Having just released the wonderful Unseen Dimensions album for Wayside & Woodland multi-disciplinary sound artist Caminauta, talks to Magazine Sixty about art, music and hidden depths.
Welcome to Magazine Sixty, Caminauta. Your wonderful new album, Unseen Dimensions, seeks connection with nature amid solitude, yet feels warmly empathetic toward human conversation. What lessons have you learned from living in an isolated retirement community located on the beach coast near the Brazilian border? Do you think you would have made the same album if you had been living in a more
urban environment?
Hi Greg, thank you for the invitation and for this space.
I’ve always been very solitary by nature, and living in isolation was a way to stay closer to that familiar feeling and to connect with myself. The lessons I’ve learned are always about remembering those parts of myself I felt I had lost, as well as the importance of balance between solitude and social life.
I think the album would certainly have had a different impact on me if I had been living in a more urban environment, but isolation is what speaks most truly to me.
I’m fascinated to hear about your creative process: how you begin a piece of music, from what source, and is creating music a lengthy process, given the detail you explore?
My process is very explorative. It always starts with something I’ve read, an image that stays with me, a question that the landscape around me seems to be trying to ask without fully answering. I try to build the atmosphere of that echo using sound. Then, over that sonic skeleton, I start to play. I gather instruments, textures, samples, and reconstruct them like collage fragments that seek each other out, that don’t quite know why they’re together but need each other. The original elements are my guide; I return to them to check whether the
emotion is still intact. Without that emotion, the sound becomes artificial.
I work in cycles of immersion and distance. I let the material rest while I collect new stimuli to feed the soundscape. Instead of polishing, I focus on preserving the discovery, the initial spark. I need to surprise myself, because what I’m really trying to sustain is an enthusiasm that I’m often afraid of losing. The process itself is my way of expanding through curiosity.
For me, a piece is finished when I can admire how all those elements connect, creating a language of their own that reconstructs and suggests new ways of listening and relating to the outside world.
Tell us about your use of the guitar and what it means to you as an instrument – which guitar do you own? Who is your favourite guitarist?
The acoustic guitar was my first instrument, but then I left it aside for years. When I returned to it, I felt a deep connection to my teenage years. I love playing melodies and also taking an experimental approach sampling them and then trying to play them back in new ways. That process gives me a very unique way of relating to the instrument.
For now, I only own an old acoustic guitar that my best friend gifted me. My favorite guitarists are Ted Greene and Jónsi from Sigur Ró.
The presence of vocals on the album lends it a personal touch, not always found in music centred on atmosphere rather than drums. How did you find the process of adding your voice to the music?
Adding vocals was, for me, the challenge of the album. I always like trying something new. Introducing vocals was about adding a more organic and personal touch. I made and recorded them in my bed, in a dark room, because I wanted to capture the special essence that such an intimate moment provided me. I think it’s interesting to leave space for spontaneity.
Who are your favourite singers (from an era)?
Greg Lake (from Emerson,lake, and Palmer) and Sibylle Baier.
How do you feel about the power of song in 2026? Are melodies still saying something important?
I feel the power of a song has become even stronger nowadays. Even as an instrumental sound artist, I find it really interesting how powerful a song can be, and I’m curious to explore that in the future. I believe melodies are still evoking something that we often feel has been lost in time and I speak from certain emotions when I say that.
Do you think connections through social media are important? What are the positives and negatives of using the networks?
I think it’s important, but always with balance. Thanks to social media, I’ve been able to reach my audience. I mean, I’m still just a countryside girl from a small town where my music is very hidden and still unknown here. On the positive side, it allows me to share my music with people who resonate with it, and also to discover great artists. On the negative side, I think it can kill creativity if not used in the right way, and it can also affect productivity.
Does music have the power to change the world?
Yes, and its power is stronger than ever. I believe music has a profound ability to unite and to heal it can change lives, and in doing so, it can change the world.
Tell us about your work composing for film/ Installations? Does it differ from the albums you make? Do you have a favourite piece you have created so far?
I started composing for films after I released one of my first albums on Bandcamp. I remember connecting with some really interesting artists from Ukraine, from Poltava they were like me, making art in a small town and they began sending me videos to mix with my music. Eventually, I got more into composing for films and installations as other artists offered me commissions and project invitations. It all happened very unexpectedly.
As for art installations, I think my deep connection with spaces and visuals guided me there. It’s a bit different from some of the albums I make, but somehow it’s connected to the way I interact with different kinds of media, building soundscapes and atmospheres from those concepts to make the experience more vivid. One of my favorites is a soundtrack I made for a film/video art installation directed by Margarida Paiva, titled Invasion. It’s the third video in a series that thematically revolves around nature, animals, and animism.
Download/Stream Unseen Dimensions at Bandcamp
Caminauta Instagram
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