Travesías

Travesías

While Brazilian pop music has been experiencing a much deserved resurgence in popularity in the past five years, the rest of the South American continent remains terra incognita to most. Thankfully David Byrne’s adventurous Luaka Bop label has worked tirelessly throughout the last decade to bring South America’s forgotten musical patrimony to the attention of American audiences. Peruvian songstress Susana Baca, who has been purveying her skillful fusion of Afro-Peruvian folk and Cuban and Brazilian pop forms for over twenty years, is one of Luaka Bop’s most accomplished artists. Travesìas/i>, her latest release, finds her experimenting with intoxicating, funk inflected rhythms and bold psychedelic flourishes to create a unique style of music. It hearkens back to the wild experimentation of Peru’s mid ‘70s Cultural Revolution while retaining a bracingly contemporary edge. Tracks like “Palomita Ingrata” and the closing “Lundero” find Baca reinterpreting traditional Andean melodies while the unfettered simplicity of “Estrela” finds her collaborating with an invigorated Gilberto Gil, proving that she's equally capable of applying her talents to classical pop forms.

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