Artists
who's who and who's doing what?Novalima
- country:Germany
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In the USA they have the blues, in Peru we simply
call it Musica Afro-Peruana or 'Afro'. This is our
black music, which black people in Peru wrote to
describe their fears, their sufferings, their culture.
Novalima is a Peruvian production collective created
in 2001 by four Peruvian musicians based in Lima
(Ramon Perez Prieto), Barcelona (Grimaldo Del
Solar), London (Rafael Morales) and Hong Kong
(Carlos Li Carrillo).
Their second album 'Afro' is a selection of versions
and remixes of traditional Afro-Peruvian songs,
some of which are more than 100 years old,
blended with electronic beats, dub and Novalima's
own compositions. The music is heavily driven by
Afro-Peruvian and Latin percussions, blended with
dub sounds (the group uses vintage dub equipment
purchased from Mikey Dread).
The album was mixed and co-produced by Toni
Economides (Da Lata, R. Miles, Nitin Sawney, 4Hero,
Bugz in the Attic), and was later mastered in
Sterling Sound NY by Tom Coyne.
'Afro', recorded mostly in Lima, features
participations from Afro-Peruvian legends such as
Nicomedes Santa Cruz, Lucila Campos, Lucha
Reyes, and Zambo Cavero; in addition to renowned
Afro-Peruvian musicians such as Juan Medrano
Cotito, Mangué Vaquez, Milagros Guerrero, Oscar
Avilés Jr., and Pedro Urrutia. They have managed to
capture the real soul of Afro-Peru. You can hear it
in Cotito's thumping cajon playing, in Mangue's
percussion ensembles (Mangue is grandson of
Porfirio Vasquez', considered the founder of the
Afro-Peruvian movement), in Milagros' emotive
voice, and Oscar Aviles Jr's sweet guitar playing.
This is a modern work with today's arrangements
but the spirits of yesterday. 'Afro' kick starts a new
chapter in the story of this amazing music...it
begins here and now...
