Psychedelic afro-caribbean Cumbia
Drawing from influences like Cumbia, Merengue, Dub and afro-caribbean rhythms, Candeleros surrender to a sort of exorcism full of differents sounds in which they reach altered states of consciousness. All of this includes percussion sounds coming from the beyond, Andean echoes, cinematic atmospheres and tunes that seem to come from an old episode of The Twilight Zone. Candeleros music is like digging into a postmodernism hole to find the very pure of tropicalismo.
Candeleros is a plurinacional group of six people that come from Colombia and Venezuela. They have their operational center in Madrid, from where they try to expand a multicoloured psychedelic sound to dance. “Echar una candela” is commonly known as the improvised reunion around the tobacco, fire and music. “La candela” also is the measurement for the lights units and their intensity. “Candela” and “fuego” are also used as metaphors for passion, hit and love.
Candeleros goal is to unify the afro-caribbean sounds as a proof of identity, folklore and modernity. William, Fernando, Urko, Sergio, Alex and Andrés come from places where we can listen to rhythms like Cumbia and Son. They have mixed these rhythms alongside with percussion sounds and guitars to create a sort of psychedelic ritual.
During their seven years of musical trajectory, Candeleros has performed in differents shows around Europe and United States. They have performed in important festivals such as Sonorama Ribera, Trans Musicales de Rennes (France), Sziget Festival (Budapest), BAM Festival (Barcelona), SXSW (Austin).
In addition to all of this, Candeleros music can be found in music platforms such as KEXP radio, FIP Radio, Radio Gladys Palmera and Sofar Sounds Madrid.
Exciting cumbia from Mexico and beyond
The roots of Kumbia Boruka are to be found in Monterrey, the cumbia capital of Mexico and the place where Hernan Cortés, the accordion player and band leader, grew up in the eighties. He didn’t only learn to play the accordion from the living legend of Mexican cumbia, Celso Piña, but he was also the percussionist in the band of Celso Piña during long international tours.
Besides their own contemporary and festive compositions, the band knows how to bring new flavours to classic cumbias from the sixties, mixing it with influences from reggae, dub, African music and rock, psychedelic electric guitar melodies, an extensive rhythm section and powerful and exciting brass arrangements. The Peruvian cumbia, called chicha, is not forgotten either. The result is a hybrid cumbia, nueva cumbia, with fierce Latin energy that will blow your mind! It’s party time!
With three albums and more than 400 shows, Kumbia Boruka has fulfilled his challenge by making the Old Continent vibrate at the emblematic rhythm of Latin America, the Cumbia.
In addition, the band’s music appears with 5 songs in the soundtrack of the excellent documentary series Maradona in Mexico launched on Netflix last year.
The “Remedio” that Kumbia Boruka offers is an authentic and compelling cure against the evils of our time. To be enjoyed without moderation !
Line up
Hernán Cortés – Lead Voice & accordion
Christian Briseño – Lead Voice
Tadeo Cortés – Congas & guacharaca
Jonathan Cortez Castillo – Bass
Miguel Mino – Guitar
Cyril Gelly – Drums
Clément Buisson – Trumpet
Tristan Darphin – Trombone
La Dame Blanche intertwines her native Afro-Cuban influences with hip-hop, trap, reggae, dancehall and reggaeton beats. The musical project of the singer and flutist Yaite Ramos Rodríguez recognizes her on stage as a revelation of rap in Spanish, with an energetic performance that mixes the Latin and the urban, the fierce and the sensual.
Born in a family of musicians, Yaite was raised by sons, rumbas and boleros and began to explore, from the classical flute, the creation of her own musical language. Life took her to perform on stages around the world, collaborating for the first time with Latin jazz, reggae and cumbia artists. These experiences converged in the appearance of La Dame Blanche. From port to port, this mystical character embarks on a ritual that rescues silenced stories from everyday life, and intertwines them with powerful beats that spontaneously dialogue with the feminine company of the flute. Since “Pirata”, her first album release, La Dame Blanche navigates with ease the explosive lyrics of Cuban urban hip hop.
La Dame Blanche has five albums to her credit as well as numerous collaborations with artists from around the world. For more than a decade, their songs have sought to humbly enter homes as an irreverent shout that empowers and soothes with joy the true things in life.
