Insólito UniVerso
"When Venezuelan music meets psychedelic folk like The Heliocentrics, the result is a cocktail that’s a little crazy, very uplifting, perfectly balanced, and absolutely delicious"
The “Insólito Universo” project draws inspiration from very diverse sources such as psychedelic folk, experimental music and very particularly music from Venezuela: joropos, waltzes, tonadas, merengues and Afro-Venezuelan music. With the “anthropophagous” desire of the tropicalists, the group feeds on all these influences to build a unique sound, bringing Venezuelan music to new unexpected territories.
Maria Fernanda Ruette (vocals, cuatro) and Raul Monsalve (bass) come together to compose music drawing from their roots, with the freedom of improvised, contemporary and experimental music, they are then joined by Edgar Bonilla Jiménez on the keyboards.
The second album Ese Puerto Existe, was composed and collaborated with multi-instrumentalist musicians from the Venezuelan traditions, such as Manuel Sánchez and Rafael Mejiaz, with drummer Francesco Pastacaldi, an essential figure in the free sphere Parisian jazz. Laëtitia Sadier, the emblematic voice and co-founder of Stereolab is also on the disk. The album was mixed by longtime collaborator Malcolm Catto of the Heliocentrics, Meridian Brothers founder Eblis Alvarez and Venezuelan engineer Fidel Goa.
This disc reveals a rooted sound, exploring the percussive rhythms of Venezuelan traditions. It begins at the seaside with a gaita de tambora, a musical genre from the south of Lake Maracaibo, which gives it’s title to the album: “Ese Puerto Existe”
It continues with hypnotic motifs of the joropo: from “Pajarillo con Chipola” to “Goyo Tuyero”, enveloped in the synthesised landscapes of Edgar Bonilla, while “Tiento de Batalla” presents the pulse and devotion of the tradition Tamunangue dedicated to San Antonio de Padua, deployed in vast arrangements for winds. The dance rhythms of big cities arrive with “El Chivo”, a minimalist merengue from Caracas with “Ventana Honda”, a furro gaita from the city of Maracaibo.
The album ends in the humid regions of the central coast and the Afro-Venezuelan fulia drums in “Fulia del Cacaotal” echoing the painful history of the plantation. On the bonus track, “Tonada del Bip-bip”, a solas echoes in the distance, drawing a thin path of dust in the plains.
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IN THE PRESS
« (...) “ Not so much a journey to motherland as a trip to otherness”
«Dreamcore explorations into Venezuelan folklore» « A group of fabulously talented artists» « A fantastic trio that unites tradition and modernity, already a reference of the venezuelan sounds» « Full of musical surprises and innovative artistry.»
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