In the shimmering haze of late June, Costa Rica’s Adiós Cometa has launched a new chapter of their shoegaze, post-rock, and dream pop infused quest to mesmerize the senses and transport us to a world where melancholy and organic sound of echoing guitars dance in tandem.
We were first introduced to Emanuel Mora through our exploration of the Costa Rican emo and screamo scene, curated so passionately by his label, Furia. Back then, our focus was on the raw intensity of his project Cabeza De Agua—a band that felt like the wild, untamed heart of a scene bursting with creativity. Now, Emanuel returns to us with a new offering from his primary band, Adiós Cometa, who have just unveiled their first full-length LP, a record that promises to be a defining moment in their journey.
Formed in 2019, Adiós Cometa emerged with the intention of weaving together melodies steeped in reverb, chorus, and delay, crafting a sound both introspective and melancholic.
Their art exists in the liminal spaces between shoegaze, dream pop, and post-punk—a blend of genres that, when infused with their unique touch, becomes something else entirely: a soundscape that feels like a dream you’ve half-forgotten but desperately long to revisit.
This long-awaited LP comes after a series of EPs and singles that hinted at the boundless potential of this Costa Rican quartet.
Their earlier releases, like the EP La Isla Que Somos, which found a home with Velvet Blue Music in 2021, and a compelling split with New York’s ISLA INVISIBLE in 2022, laid the groundwork for this latest release. But with Nuestras Manos Son Incendios, Adiós Cometa doesn’t just fulfill expectations—they shatter them, offering up a body of work that is both expansive and deeply intimate.
The album is a kaleidoscope of sounds—furious yet tender, chaotic yet serene. Tracks like “Prefiero Quedarme” burn with an intensity that contrasts beautifully with the ethereal calm of “Formas De Volver A Casa.”
Each song feels like a different facet of the band’s collective soul, yet there is a coherence that ties the album together, a thread of introspection and nostalgia that echoes through every note. The diversity of voices within the band—each member contributing their own vocal textures—only adds to this richness, creating an album that feels like a conversation between kindred spirits.
The recording process, helmed by Pablo Ocampo at Red Stag Studio, captures not just the music, but the essence of a band growing into their own. With contributions from both local and regional artists, including CONTRADICTA from Costa Rica and LUMTZ from Argentina, the album is a great proof of the collaborative spirit that has always driven Adiós Cometa. The inclusion of voices like Pilar Ángel from Guatemala’s ASIMOV and Carlos González from Mexico’s NO SOMOS MARINEROS adds even more layers to this rich sonic tapestry.
As Emanuel shared with us, the band’s journey has been one of constant evolution, shaped by their experiences on stage and in the studio. From sharing stages with bands like NOTHING, EL ÚLTIMO VECINO, and PORTER, to their tours in Mexico, ADIÓS COMETA has been steadily building a name for themselves, one show at a time.
This new LP is available now on all digital platforms, and for those who cherish the tactile experience of music, there are several physical editions to look forward to. Daydream Records is releasing a vinyl edition, Velvet Blue Music is handling the CD release, and FURIA is offering a cassette version.
For a deeper dive into the minds behind Adiós Cometa, we’ve conducted a special interview with the band, where they delve into their creative process, the themes that tie the album together, and their inspirations. We also explore the stunning cover art, a visual representation that complements the sonic landscape of the album.
Tell me more about the project. When did it start, who are the members, and what other projects are you involved in?
Adiós Cometa is Jonathan (guitar/vocals), Mark (bass/vocals), Gae (guitar), Pablo (drums) and me, Ema (guitar/vocals). We all are from San José, Costa Rica. We started making music together in 2019 and released an EP right during the worst part of covid. Played our first official show until 2021 and the experience of it definitely changed our sound and gave us new directions to explore. After a couple of splits and some singles, we just released our first full-lenght and we’re pretty thrilled to finally show what we’ve been producing for the last 3 years. We currently don’t have any other active side projects.
What motivated you to create this album? What inspired you to put together this particular collection of songs, and is there a common theme that ties the whole concept together?
Even though some say that albums are obsolete in this age of streaming, making a record has been one of our main goals since day one. That’s the way we enjoy listening to music the most, so we started working towards that. Almost immediately after releasing our first EP, we started recording this new batch of songs, starting with ‘Prefiero Quedarme’ and ‘Cabeza de Agua’, that we originally released in 2022 as a Split EP with NYC-based band Isla Invisible. After that, we progressively worked on the rest of the songs. If my memory doesn’t fail, on ‘Diente de León’ first, then ‘Transparente’, ‘FDA 94’, ‘Orizaba’, the ambient tracks and more recently ‘Los Años Pequeños Días’, ‘Costanera’ and ‘Veleros’. The whole process lasted 3 years, probably more than it should, but gladly finally here we are!
I would say that there’s an overall sense of angst with some glimmers of hope here and there that ties the whole album together, but there’s not like a literal conceptual theme running through the lyrics. We mostly write about getting old, love and the passing of time. You know, stuff that you start thinking of when you are 34.
Can you tell me more about the cover art? Does this visual correspond with the main theme of the album?
The album is titled ‘Nuestras Manos Son Incendios’, which translated would be something like “Our Hands Are Fires”. The title is derived from a lyric from one of our songs, ‘FDA 94’, that says “I wanted to unite with fire, burned everything around me”. We chose it because we felt it represents very well the overall feeling of the album. We also loved the “violence” and ambiguity of the title and wanted to represent that on the artwork as well.
There’s this Argentinian graphic designer named Santiago Moscardi that has made fantastic artwork for bands like Mujer Cebra, Dum Chica and Buenos Vampiros and we felt that his style was perfect for what we were looking for. He ended up doing it and we absolutely love the results. It somehow ended up being better than we had in mind.
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The sound of this album is incredible. It’s a fascinating mix of eclectic tones balancing between a sensual vibe and nostalgia. It’s very enjoyable to listen to, yet varied enough to keep things interesting. Can you talk about your musical inspirations and how you create these sounds? What does your process look like and what inspires it?
Thanks so much for your kind words! Have never thought about our music as sensual, but I kinda get what you refer to. But yeah, we try to keep things interesting and move all around within our influences as far as possible without getting lost. We all come from very different musical backgrounds so since the start it has been interesting to put all of that together and find a common spot.
Apart from the obvious shoegaze and dream-pop influence, we all share a deep love for post-hardcore and emo from our teenage years. Over time, we have managed to incorporate some of that in our sound. You can hear it on songs like ‘Diente de León’, ‘Los Años Pequeños Días’, ‘Veleros’ and ‘Orizaba 42’. Besides that, there’s some folk influences, post-rock and ambient.
Our process of writing songs is pretty simple. Most of the time one of us brings an idea to a rehearsal and if it works we all start working on it until we feel we have a finished song. Some other times, the idea just flows in a rehearsal. In both cases, playing rough versions of the song at concerts also helps us to get an idea of how we would like to evolve it.
Could you comment on each track? We’d love to hear what each song is about both lyrically and in terms of inspiration. What sparked the idea for each of these tracks?
Orizaba 42 – This is the track that we use to start our shows with. It started as an improv thing, but it started to develop a more established form and we absolutely felt the need to record it and put it as the album opener, since we wanted the album to capture the vibe of our live shows. Its name comes from the address of the place where we stayed in Mexico City in 2022, the first time we played outside of Costa Rica. It was a meaningful weekend for us, so we wanted to keep its memory alive with this title.
Transparente – Following the same path as we did in songs like ‘Norte’, ‘Transparente’ it’s a melancholy filled dream-pop love song that evokes our purest motto of “mucho chorus y reverb”. I love John’s 50’s-infused guitar riffs.
Prefiero Quedarme – We started recording this track right after the release of our first EP, around the second half of 2021. By then, we had already played a couple of shows and realized that we wanted to play heavier and louder than what we did on the EP. This song was our first attempt to translate that into a recording. We originally released it as a Split EP with NYC-based band Isla Invisible in 2022, and wanted to include a remastered version of it on the album because it was the spearhead of this new batch of songs. The start of this new era, so it didn’t feel right to leave it behind. Lyrically, it speaks of the uncertainty of life and the longing for a secure, immutable place to stay.
FDA 94’ – It’s funny because this song started as an acoustic track, then evolved to one of our heaviest songs live, was then recorded as an acoustic track for a compilation (Acústico 01, 2023) and now it’s officially released as loud and furious as it is live. I love how slow and irate it sounds. Lyrically, it is one of our favorites, too. Mark’s voice roars as it’s best. It’s about growing old, making peace with the errors from the past and looking for a better way to live.
Las Torres – This song was also originally released on the Split EP with Isla Invisible in 2022. We always wanted to experiment with full instrumental, ambient music, and this was our first time doing that. We collaborated with Argentinian ambient artist Lumtz, who added and manipulated textures and tascam recordings. For the album, we decided to bring it back to life with a new collaboration with Pilar Ángel, vocalist of Guatemalan post-punk/shoegaze band Asimov. Pilar wrote lyrics, recorded it and then Costa Rican artists and producer Contradicta did a sonic collage with it and the results are a heavenly take on the song, inspired by acts that we love like Grouper.
Los Años, Pequeños Días – I originally wrote this song as an ambient track. I even tried to record it like that in the studio but that first take didn’t work. Then, I reimagine it as a kind of intro to Diente de León and eventually it evolves into a proper song. It was actually one of the last songs we recorded for the album. Its only lyrics translates to “I waste time, and it’s running out”. I like to think of it as a reckoning of the fact, not in a hopeless way, but in a revelatory, “oh, damn, I have to do something with this” way. Musically speaking, I got inspiration in bands like Mineral and its naive honesty.
Diente de León – This is another song that I wrote the base of. Musically, to be honest, is my best take on Sore Eyelids’ emo/shoegaze sound, with the tremolo thing and all. They are one of my favorite bands ever and they are a huge influence on what I do. Pablo, our drummer, added the change of time signature on that bridge/breakdown kind of thing in the middle of the song, and No Somos Marineros’ vocalist Carlos González shared his voice, our first one with actual yelling vocals on it. We all love playing this song live, it’s pretty fun.
Formas de Volver a Casa – Mark and I went one Sunday afternoon to José Acuña’s (aka Contradicta) house in San José and recorded this. José is a Costa Rican ambient producer with a long trajectory and we really wanted to work alongside him to produce an ambient track for the album. We arrived with a very basic pattern of chords and everything else flowed pretty natural. My memories of that evening are pretty dreamy. We were listening to these waves of sweet ambiance in the dark, while they were progressively getting into a ghostly, vaporous shape.
Costanera – The last track we wrote and recorded for the album. Almost an afterthought. We played a rough live version a couple of times and didn’t plan to record it for the album, but we ended up doing it and surprisingly many people say it’s their favorite song of the album. It has a weird guitar thing at the bridge, slightly influenced by math rock that I’m not sure we love anymore, but it’s what it is, haha. Lyrically, it’s a love lost song. We like to think of it as a continuation of Transparente’s story.
Veleros – I know it’s kind of cliché to end an album with an acoustic track, but we do love this song and it couldn’t be anywhere else than at the end of the record. We knew we wanted to record this since John sent us a voice note with it. I think it’s a perfect closure. It’s ultimately about decisions. About choices. And all this record is about where those choices take you.
We’re more than halfway through the year, so tell us if you have any albums you consider the best releases of the year so far. We’d love to add your list with a short comment for each choice.
Some albums and EPs from Latin American artists (and a couple from Spain) that we have greatly enjoyed so far:
Necesito El Valor Tanto Como Necesito El Miedo – Madre Misericordia (Chile).
Almost all of us have been haunted by this project’s music. It’s beautiful, in some ways kind of unsettling but at the same time comforting. It’s warm and it transports you to mental places that you could hardly visit otherwise. What else could you ask?
Osito del Amor – Adiós Calor, Hola Mundo Frio (Argentina).
Lethargic, twinkly enough and delicate slowcore/emo.
Buaya Darat – La Isla de Taylor Voy (Costa Rica).
A pretty unique release from our hometown. It’s not math rock, it’s not prog. What is it? They self-categorize as Alt-Rock Tropical and kinda makes sense, but it doesn’t make justice to the potent blend of sick riffs and crazy drum work.
Dylan Thomas. – Todo Se Desvanece (Costa Rica).
Another release from CR, Dylan Thomas, apart from close friends, are one of the Costa Rican bands that we admire the most. Their live shows are insane! They also released their first LP a month apart from ours and we even did a release show together. Can’t recommend them enough if you enjoy noise rock and more punk-oriented shoegaze.
A Su Ladera – No Había Forma De Saber (Costa Rica).
Also from Costa Rica. A Su Ladera’s second EP is an interesting work of bass-driven, lush dream-pop songs, with beautiful guitar ambience and sweet synth lines. We absolutely love them.
Viva Belgrado – Cancionero de los Cielos (Spain).
You all have probably heard of them. It ‘s really good, right?
El Último Vecino – Riqui (Spain).
Their latest LP is a reminder of why they are a mainstay of Spanish post-punk. We had the chance to open for them in Mexico City in 2022 and it was a great experience.
Lastly, let us know what’s next for you in the coming months. Do you have any concerts or other plans lined up? Feel free to share updates on any other active projects too. What’s going on with those bands, and what are your plans for the upcoming months?
We returned to Mexico on August 3rd. We played with a bunch of cool bands, including No Somos Marineros, one of our favorites ever.
We’ll start working on a couple of songs that we’re very excited to share (little spoiler, one of those is probably our most emo song ever) and hopefully they’ll be out before the end of the year.
We’re also on the mixing part of a live album that we’re also thrilled to release. We’ll hopefully keep creating new music, doing shows and enjoying it all.
