Last week, when opening the mailbox, I came across a fantastic project sent by the great people over at ZZK Records. Reminder: ZZK Records is the Argentinean label that has been highlighting digital cumbia since 2008.
The project is called History of Colour, it’s an EP consisting of 6 unreleased tracks. History of Colour is the fruit of the “2.0 encounter” of two producers: El Búho aka Robin Perkins and Barrio Lindo aka Augustin Rivaldo. The first is English but lives in Amsterdam, where he organizes the events Subtropikal Nights. El Búho also hosts the “Rhythm & Roots” program on radio Groovalisacion which aims to broadcast sounds from around the world, combining local folklore and contemporary innovations. Barrio Lindo is himself a native of Buenos Aires. Having spent three years in Bogota, where he became familiar with the rhythms and traditional culture, it’s in the southern outskirts of the Argentinean capital he now lives. Barrio Lindo builds handcrafted instruments inspired by Latin American culture, and was introduced to producing beats with the absolute master Chancha Via Circuito.
Both composers have attended events organized by the ZZK label, and to hear the results that we are offered in History of Colour just leads to think that the work done by the Argentinean label was successful and gave birth to a second generation of producers.
“We were both making music in a similar direction, experimenting with Latin American folk traditions, reinterpreting and crossing them with new sounds and new directions.” Robin and Augustin.
El Búho and Barrio Lindo have swapped over the internet each of their compositions, before each added his touch to the piece of the other, and the result gave this EP: History of Colour. A surprising disk, captivating, straight out of an idyllic jungle somewhere between Europe and Latin America. The subtlety of the organic beats frame the journey suggested by the two producers on each track. Delicate synth pads wrap the productions themselves embellished with folk music elements (dizi flute, ocarina) or simply harvested from the wild (raindrops, bird songs etc).
History of Colour represents the immense cultural wealth of Latin America. Contemporary reinterpretation of native rhythms of this region, or (as it is the case here) its appropriation by composers from across the globe give birth to incredibly rich and interesting projects. ZZK claims since its birth to bet on music that nobody ever counted on, and have brought it to more than 150 cities around the world. This year the label celebrated its eight years of existence, 8 years spent disseminating and highlighting the current sounds of Latin America in the world. History of Colour is the legacy of this work, and the two musicians are part of the second wave of artists promoted by the Argentinean label. Without any geographical or style borders, El Búho and Barrio Lindo deliver with this EP their contemporary version of the research of the mix of folklore and modernity.
Bonus: listen to the mixtape realized by El Búho and Barrio Lindo.
El Búho : Facebook – Twitter – Soundcloud
Barrio Lindo : Facebook – Twitter – Soundcloud
ZZK : Website – Facebook – Twitter – Soundcloud
Traduction by Ryan Lavoine.
