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Oct 02, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Morgan Askew

Under the moniker Otracami, indie singer/songwriter Camila Ortiz creates patient and painterly art pop, crafting a shimmering dance of spacious arrangements and evocative lyrical narratives. She has spent the last few years playing in a number of New York acts while writing her solo debut album, touching the stove coil. The record is a deeply personal effort for Ortiz, owing not only to its coming-of-age themes but also to its labored creative process. Ortiz wrote and produced the album and played nearly all the instruments before bringing it to drummer Jon Starks to record percussion and mixing engineer Lee Meadvin to finish out the record.

The full album is out on November 10th, and Ortiz has already shared the album’s lead single “Fold” this year. Today, she’s following with another new single, “Pitcher,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Pitcher” is a spacious and airy effort, held together by gossamer strands of melody. Initially, crisp percussion and watery keys bounce off each other, occasionally punctuated by the ring of a bell or a ticking clock, with Ortiz’s meandering vocal melody floating above the abstract soundscape. The results often feel cold, precise, and hypnotic, yet Ortiz also toys with that entrancing element to build greater depth into the track. She allows the band to subtly wax and wane, gently building until they fall back into placid bliss, only for that reverie to be shattered moments later.

Ortiz explains of the track, “‘Pitcher’ is about feeling alone in a relationship. Something small and jarring—glass shattering—wakes you up to some latent fear that the other person doesn’t share. The moment slips away, but the feeling stays with you, and you find yourself feeling more and more distant from them. The song begins in this tenuous place and starts to come apart at the moment when the feeling can’t be kept inside anymore, the moment when saying something feels both necessary and impossible.”

Check out the song below. Otracami’s debut album, touching the stove coil, is out on November 10th.