One of the perks for anyone who contributed to Vincent Moon and Lulazruza‘s Esperando el Tsunami film/album project last year was this mixtape of rare Colombian music from Mario Galeano, which has now been made available for all to listen to.
On Quilombo do Futuro, the latest album from Maga Bo, this US DJ and producer fuses the heavy dancefloor rhythms and beats that you’d find in dancehall, baile funk and tropical bass productions with Afro-Brazilian percussion and singing for an album that bridges the gap between past, present and future. A resident of Rio de Janeiro, Maga Bo talks to us about the inspirations behind the album, why it took him so long to concentrate on making a “Brazilian” album and why William Gibson’s sci-fi rastas proved such an influence.
Recent years have seen an increasing number of films set in Patagonia, a Southern area of Argentina and Chile that continaully attracts tourism due to it’s extreme geology, marine life and mountain slopes, but also provides the perfect platform for film-makers who love the isolated communities that live there as much as the vast landscapes that create a blank canvas upon which to craft their story. Here, we select a number of these new films as well as a few classics, all set – to steal a Bruce Chatwin book title – in Patagonia.
Julia Solomonoff‘s latest film is a sweet yet daring look at that awkward no man’s land between the end of childhood and the start of adolescence. The Boyita of the title is a campervan pod which also doubles as a boat according to the brochure, but Jorgelina (Guadalupe Alonso) and her sister Luciana (María Clara Merendino) just use it as a sort of playhouse during school time. Currently they are both experiencing Luciana’s bodily changes and Jorgelina is helping by squeezing her sister’s blackheads for her.
PINTA returns to London for the third time. Specialisting in exhibiting Latin American art, this year looks like one of their best shows yet, with works by Brazil’s Lygia Clark and Chile’s Matilde Perez, as well as performance art from Bolivian artist Aruma-Sandra De Berduccy. The show will run from the 8th until the 10th of June at Earl’s Court.
Here’s the first video from A Curva Da Cintura, the exciting new collaboration from Arnaldo Antunes, Edgard Scandurra and Toumani Diabaté that’s gonna be released here in the UK on Mais Um Discos on June 18th. You can find out more details of the album as well as their London show here. With Arnaldo taking a lot of vocal duties, the album is really about the interplay between Scandurra on guitar and the musicians from Mali, who are led by Diabaté. Some of the melodies they conjure up are almost hallucinogen, like this one below:
If asked for an opinion, most individuals would undoubtedly select the US as being the best destination for classic road holidays. Think again. I have found over the years that there are many countries that lend themselves to touring by car, and, dare I say it, that beat the US hands-down. My favourite of these are some of the countries of South America.
Hal Weitzman’s Latin Lessons – How South America Stopped Listening to the United States and Started Prospering is a sane, measured and humorous take on a serial underperformer. Or is it? It isn’t immediately clear whether South America “stopped listening” or whether it was no longer “forced to hear”.
Chile’s congress should address significant shortcomings in an anti-discrimination bill currently in the final stages of parliamentary debate, Human Rights Watch said recently in a letter to leading parliamentarians. “By adopting a law that fully reflects the principles of international human rights law, Chile has an opportunity of creating landmark legislation, of significance not just for Chile, but for the region as a whole,” said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division at Human Rights Watch.
Santiago de Leon de Caracas – better known simply as Caracas – is the capital and largest city of Venezuela. Caracas is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuela coastal mountain range, the Cordillera de la Costa. Lying close to the Caribbean Sea, the Caracas valley is separated from the coast by the so-called “green guardian” – a steep mountain range rising north of Caracas, named Cerro El Ávila.
The time has come again to choose our favourite albums of the year. It’s a task that’s never easy, especially after the bumper year we’ve had, with great music coming from all over South America, reflected in the fact that artists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela all feature in our list.
Between the dry grasslands of the cerrado savanna and the tropical forest of western Brazil lies the valley of the Juruena river, the homeland of the Enawene Nawe. The Mato Grosso state government is building a series of hydroelectric dams upriver from the tribe’s land. The dams threaten the Enawene Nawe’s forest home, the fish they eat and their sacred Yãkwa ritual. Preliminary April 2012 reports from the Enawene Nawe suggest that this year’s fish stocks may be as depleted as those in 2009.
