ZUNIGA, DAGMAR - IN FILTH YOUR MYSTERY IS KINGDOM / FAR SMILE PEASANT IN YELLOW MUSIC (LP)

"Zuniga began recording to tape as a teenager, drawn to the physicality of the medium - how a tape recording is fragile, mutable, and alive. Though her ethereal sound may draw easy comparisons to other female pioneers of psychedelic folk, she is influenced just as much by the darker sounds of Syd Barrett and The Fall. Like Barrett, Zuniga is a painter, and she is interested not only in recording music but in creating a full, self-contained artistic universe: she creates her own artwork, merchandise, music videos, and bootleg tapes of new and unfinished music that she exclusively sells at live shows ("If something is not material, it does not exist," she insists). Her world has not gone unvisited, garnering her a monthly show on NTS Radio 'World of Pain', as well as a forthcoming appearance at Rewire Festival in April 2026. Though Zuniga's work explores themes of solitude and suffering, the suffering in her songs is not borrowed or displayed; it is held, then opened outward through empathy - an exacting practice of attention that insists on shared ground. Solitude, in her work, is not withdrawal but a starting point for connection. Likewise, over time, her recording process has become increasingly communal, with in filth featuring musicians Hayes Hoey, Austyn Wohlers (Tomato Flower), and Zach Phillips (Fievel Is Glauque). Newer recordings widen the circle even more. For Zuniga, collaboration is a way to "find a place between worlds," echoing Badiou's idea of love as a vision refracted through the prism of difference. Meaning emerges there - in the space between voices, between artist and listener. "I hope my music helps people work through difficult experiences," she says. "The same way it helps me."" (label info)