CHICHA LIBRE

Started in 2007, the Brooklyn band is made up of musicians from France, Mexico, Venezuela and the US who have been at the forefront of a global movement to revive and promote Chicha - psychedelic cumbia from Peru.

Chicha was first popularized outside of Peru by a compilation released by Chicha Libre's own Olivier Conan back in 2007 and entitled "The Roots of Chicha." The music proved popular around the world, being championed by people such as Matt Groening, Alex Kapranos, Elijah Wood or director Almadovar, who included one of the tracks as the opening track of his movie I’m So Excited. .

Chicha Libre started out as a tribute to Peruvian pioneers but quickly evolved into an original project which MTV has called “one of the world's preeminent Tropical Psychedelic band”. Indeed, while they remain true to their Chicha roots, Chicha Libre's music has a harder psychedelic edge, drawing from its members' alternative background.

Much like its mentors, Chicha Libre uses surf guitar, organ sounds and Latin percussion to play a mixture of borrowed and homegrown sounds – but its music is a freeform reinvention. Synth sounds, treated guitars, French songs, classical music and pop debris from three continents contribute to the band’s freeform approach to the tropical genre.

Chicha Libre has released two albums: Sonido Amazonico and Canibalismo, and an EP; Cuatro Tigres, all on Barbès Records and Crammed Disc. The albums proved popular with both South American audiences and North American press - earning great reviews from the likes of Pitchfork, NPR or the Village Voice - as well as Clarin, El Comercio and Rolling Stone Argentina.

After a 6 year hiatus, Chicha Libre released an EP this summer - Tequila y Aguardiente - which included collaborations with their friends Son Rompe Pera (from Mexico) and La Sonora Mazuren (from Colombia). The EP deconstructs two classics: the iconic Tequila! by the Champs and a track by Ecuadorian cult composer Polibio Mayorga. The tunes are taken apart and transformed into a new tropical futurist vision - a true teaser of things to come.

Chicha Libre has played with a number of their Peruvian heroes - in Los Angeles, with Jose Carballo, of Chacalon y la Nueva Crema fame, in Lima with Los Shapis and in Berlin with Ranil, the legendary cumbiero from Iquitos in his only ever concert outside of the Amazon.... They have also shared the stage

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LA PRESSE EN PARLE

« Chicha Libre celebrates the lo-fi virtues of old-school chicha on its latest album, Canibalismo.
NPR