Luzmila Carpio (Bolivia)

• country:Bolivia
• label:ZZK Records
• type:Band
• artist contact:Opus XXXIII srl

Line up

• Alex Musatov (Violin)
• Camilo Carabajal (Percussion)
• Leonardo Martinelli (Guitar, Percussion)
• Luzmila Carpio (Vocals, Charango)

An Indigenous Quechua speaker from the plains of the Bolivian Altiplano (the high plateau of the central Andes), Luzmila Carpio has been consistently performing, recording and releasing music across six decades. Carpio’s music is based around traditional songs and styles of the Quechua and other Indigenous Bolivian peoples, but she has refused to confine Indigenous culture to the metaphorical museum. Instead of allowing her music to be crystallised within a historical or folkloric context, she has kept it resolutely contemporary and constantly evolving, creating her own distinctive style around her huge, operatic vocal range and melodies often inspired by native Andean birds.
From her first recordings in the 1970s, Carpio blazed a trail. She sung in Quechua at a time when the language was still heavily repressed within her country, but rather than quailing to the oppression, she used her voice to speak up for the rights of Indigenous people, women and the environment. She upheld this commitment even after leaving Bolivia for France in the 1980s, working with organisations such as UNICEF and collaborating widely, particularly with fellow women engaged in Indigenous solidarity, including Miriam Makeba, Cesária Évora and Susana Baca.
Now, with over 25 albums to her name (including three from her recent and fruitful relationship with ZZK Records), Luzmila Carpio is the world’s most recognised Quechua-language singer.