“the most original sounding album I’ve heard of late, and most controlled and musical application of noise I’ve experienced in a long time.”– THE WIRE

“it’s about how music that’s both carefully-made and open to chance can produce mini-narratives, vignettes that sound like windows into something larger.” – BANDCAMP DAILY

Ale Hop (Alejandra Cárdenas) is a Peruvian-born artist. Cárdenas began her career in Lima’s underground music scene in the 2000s. Her work encompasses various formats such as live shows, albums, multimedia artworks and research. Her live performances merge the physical qualities of sound with raw affective states. She builds layers of sound by maneuvering an intricate repertoire of electric guitar techniques to create music of deep intensity. In the past year, she has initiated various collaborative practices, including Agua Dulce with percussionist Laura Robles, radically mutating Afro-Peruvian rhythms, and Near and Remote Activation Practices, with sound artist Tatiana Heuman, which draws inspiration from South American organology and storytelling. She has presented her work at festivals and institutions such as UNSOUND, MUTEK, Sonic Acts, CTM Festival, Taiwan C-LAB, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Somerset House Studios; and released albums on Nyege Nyege, Buh Records, Karlrecords and Superpang.

Following a string of acclaimed collaborations – including Agua Dulce with percussionist Laura Robles and Mapambazuko alongside Congolese guitarist Titi Bakorta – Cárdenas returned in late 2025 with her most personal work to date yet, A Body Like a Home. Marking her first album under her birth name, the project is a sonic memoir exploring the tangled realms of trauma, recovery, and love through autobiographical soundscapes. A Body Like a Home is the artist at her most exposed. Comprising 13 songs and 15 poems, the album sees her set aside collaborative fusions for solo catharsis, channelling years of turbulence – intergenerational scars left by colonialism, racism, domestic violence, and alcoholism – into a work that oscillates between brutality and tenderness.

Cárdenas is also available for booking with Laura Robles for their project Agua Dulce.