Sonic Forest

Sonic Forest (Déjame Respirar)

Azure Sky Adventure - Mighty Mountains Of Destiny

The cult of Multi Culti expands it’s horizons to include Nicola Cruz, backed by remixes from Xanga and L_cio.

Nicola Cruz’s music beautifully invokes the landscapes and rituals of his homeland, Ecuador, a country that contains both the majestic Andes mountains and the mighty Amazon jungle.  His sound is an amalgamation of folkloric traditions and ancestral mythologies, crafted with fine detail and slick production techniques. 

In 2012 Nicola collaborated with Nicolas Jaar on Clown & Sunset, and has since worked towards his debut album on ZZK Records.
Between past and present, traditional and modern, Nicola fits into a growing scene of South American artists exploring local indigenous and Afro-cosmologies, among fellow artists and ZZK label-mates like Chancha Via Circuito. 

For his debut on Multi Culti, Nicola has created Mantis, and it is arguably his most accomplished club record to date, a 105bpm tribal chugger that flexes shamanic authority over hearts and minds. Invocacion goes even deeper into the new, new age, presenting traditional instrumentation and mysticism in a modern framework. Australia’s Xanga joins in with a super lively, rhythmic remix that is as joyful as it is deep. Finally, Brazil’s L_cio presents a version that strips things down for club play, upping the tempo while keeping the characteristic flavour of the flute.

Buy on iTunes

Nicola Cruz - Mantis

Cantos de Vision

[Premiere THUMP] Nicola Cruz - Invocación (Uji Remix)

Pre-order (World)
LP/CD/Digital: bit.ly/2qoP6Xo
www.wonderwheelrecordings.com

Pre-order (Italy)
LP/CD: latempesta.bigcartel.com
Digital: apple.co/2qYKWsj
www.latempesta.org/international

Populous is Andrea Mangia, a producer hailing from Lecce, a small city on the heel of Italy's boot. In 2003, he made his first jaunt into the music world with the album Quipo (via Morr Music). In 2005 he released Queue For Love, influenced by his reggae/hip-hop-infused surroundings (Lecce is known as Italy's Jamaica, as reggae and dancehall are extremely popular there) and in 2008 he released Drawn in Basic. Both albums were widely received by international critics, earning him a spot on the global music map. He became known for the way he seamlessly blends digital sounds with the analog warmth of soul/hip-hop/whatever else he's influenced by at the time.

Azulejos, his forthcoming release, has a South American tinge to it (and is even partly in Spanish). He moved to Lisbon, Portugal to start work on the album bringing with him only a laptop, a small MIDI keyboard, and a microphone. "Lisbon became both my studio and my muse," he says. He wandered the city collecting field recordings— from trams to people singing on street corners. He sifted through flea markets for records to use for sampling (exclusively Portuguese and South American). Populous describes Lisbon as a city 'halfway between South American soul and European modernity, African in some aspects, and dramatically melancholic." He channeled these poignant fusions into Azulejos, named for the typical tiled facades in Portugal— simultaneously bright and decaying. The album features collaborations with Nina Miranda of Smoke City and Ela Minus, among others. It's a love letter to Lisbon, and a dreamy quilt of sounds he both grew up with and heard for the first time during his influential stay in Portugal.

Azulejos

Buy Digital/CD/LP

Populous - Alala

Buy/stream 'Otun' now: montoya.lnk.to/otun

While the internet’s universality means once-inaccessible traditional and indigenous styles of music across the planet can be appropriated, sampled, and commodified with ease; it also means they can be integrated and celebrated, reflecting humanity’s idiosyncrasies as well as our shared communality. Montoya, recently signed to ZZK Records, personifies the very best of this musical globalism.

Montoya, who grew up in Colombia and now resides in Italy, entered music as a classically trained violinist. He’s keen to stress his gratitude for this adolescent education, not only in how it exposed whole new worlds of music, but permitted him travel places and sample different cultures from a young age, including playing at such renowned orchestra theaters as Gran Teatro de La Habana in Cuba and the Musikverein in Vienna. This classical upbringing naturally informed his inclusive, and methodically exacting, attitude to songwriting and production.

The pan-international musicality of his Montoya project is rooted in the musical diaspora of his native Colombia. This diaspora is vast; indigenous folk music hailing from Amazonian and Andean tribes; the cosmopolitan synthesis of modern reggaeton and traditional salsa taking place in Bogota and Medellin, and the Afro-Caribbean stylings of Cumbia and Champeta. Fusing the multi-layered precision of his classical education, his innate curiosity for Latin and “world” music, and affection for melodic electronica; his discography is at once ambitious and comfortingly familiar, as desirous of a catchy harmony as conceptual melding of Latin folk and modern electronics.

So far, under the moniker Montoya, he’s produced the stirring 2015 album Iwa and 2016 Ep Lux, where you can detect him refining his cooking skills of the indigenous and the electronic. He’s also remixed the gifted Ecuadorian Nicola Cruz’s pleasantly plodding “Cumbia del Olvido”, adding another layer of melody with a soothing string arrangement. Moreover he’s played Sonar Bogota and Musicbox Lisbon, and various European venues, but his latest album Otun looks set to both break him properly on the continent, and produce his best work so far; a fiery and flavourful gourmet dish, with British expat producer Richard Blair providing refinement as a proverbial sous chef.

On Otun, the breadth of Montoya’s influences and tastes is at its most striking; the dulcet techno hum of “La Pastora” is perforated by sprightly flutes and percussion, while lead single “Solo Quiero” deploys a languid reggaeton pattern beneath Bogota rising star Pedrina’s distorted, wilting croon anticipating a euphoric synthesiser-lead climax. The title track, featuring a sultry guest vocal from Nidia Gongora, is a fierce and vigorous club anthem, amplified by hissing synth pads and sordid breakbeats. Even a more straightforwardly techno track like “Tatacoa” is stylized with intoxicating Indian vocal samples, and more traditional folk selections like “Orun” still use an inobtrusive bassline drone. Montoya’s palette is simultaneously expansive and curious, yet coherent, with a steadily melodic electronic through-line running through Otun’s duration.

Montoya absolutely sustains ZZK’s pedigree of platforming the most exciting and inventive electronic artists from Latin America, joining the storied legacy already built by the likes of Nicola Cruz, Chancha Via Circuito, and King Coya. Whether it’s through the intricate patterns of his synthesisers or the analogue beauty of his violin, what unifies his instrumentation is the candid expression of Montoya’s experiences, ideas and dreams: “I want to feed me of all these emotions, composing and putting into music all that I’ve lived.”

Otun

Montoya - Otun feat. Nidia Gongora

BAIUCA is a project that mixes traditional Galician music with avant-garde electronics. In his live shows he combines traditional Galician instrumentation with synthesizers, sequencers, pads, etc .; In addition to being accompanied by one of the most prestigious video artists in Spain, he projects images with Galician motifs and intervenes them with image synthesizers, giving rise to an immersive show that mixes tradition and avant-garde. After a year in which he has presented his debut album "Solpor", chosen as one of the best albums of 2018 by means of Spain and Europe, he has just published "Misturas", his new EP, and signed remixes for the argentineans Chancha Vía Circuito and Kermesse or the romanians Balkan Taksim, and prepare a tour that will take you through some of the most important festivals in Spain, and through stages of countries like Portugal, United Kingdom, Italy, Holland or France sharing dates with prestigious artists such as the artist ecuadorian Nicola Cruz.

4 Baiuca - Mangüeiro (feat. Aliboria)

History Of Colour - Cinder

An album of music inspired by the song of endangered birds with 100% of the profits going towards organisations working to protect them.

"A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean” is the second Volume in the series following on from "A Guide to the Birdsong of South America", originally released on Robin's label Rhythm and Roots. Volume I raised nearly 15,000 USD for two birding organisations and featured artists like Nicola Cruz, Dengue Dengue Dengue and Chancha Via Circuito.

For this second edition we have shifted focus north of the equator and to the vulnerability of bird species like the Momoto Carenado (Nicaragua), Ferminia (Cuba) and the Jamaican Blackbird (Jamaica), birds who have dwindled in numbers as a result of the environmental repercussions of climate change, deforestation and trapping for the pet trade.

For the album we chose 10 endangered or threatened bird species and challenged 10 of our favourite producers or musicians from the region. Working with the Xeno Canto birdsong community and the Macaulay Library, we sourced a recording of each bird’s song. Each artist was then asked to create an original piece of music inspired by the bird and its song.

In line with out vision at Shika Shika the curation of artists is specifically geared towards those bridging connections between traditional music and modernity, or between organic and electronic sounds. There are contributions from artists in eight different countries, ranging from Jamaica’s organic dancehall trio Equiknoxx, to Dj Jigüe, one of the leaders of Cuba’s burgeoning electronic scene. Belize’s critically renowned Garifuna Collective have been bringing the unique Garifuna culture and language to a global audience for many years, while Tamara Montenegro has quickly become one of Nicaragua’s leading female electronic producers.

The project would not have been possible without the support of an incredible Kickstarter community, helping us raise £12,599 in August 2019.

Once the costs of production have been covered, all of the proceeds from this album will be donated to Birds Caribbean, La Asociación Ornitológica de Costa Rica and Fundacion TXORI in Mexico. All profits from the sales of the record, music streaming, poster and t-shirt will be shared between these organisations who focus on engaging local communities to help improve and grow the bird tourism sector, create awareness of vulnerable birds with young people and crucially, provide rescue, rehabilitation and breeding programmes.

To find out more visit: linktr.ee/shikashika  
credits
released June 26, 2020

Mastering by Yosi Horikawa
Artwork & cover design by Scott Partridge
Bird song recordings provided by the Macaulay Library & the Xeno Canto community.

A2 Composed by Al Ovando, arranged and Performed by The Garifuna Collective, Produced and Recorded at Stonetree Studios in Belize by Al Ovando, Published by Stonetree Music (BMI)
A3 Composition & vocals: Ximena Obregón
A5 Instrumental parts: Teresa Gabriel
B3 lyrics & vocals Majo (María José Marín), Quijongo y Ocarinas: Luis Porras (Proyecto Jirondai), Mixdown: Nathan Hall

A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean_MSTR

Jiony - Cotorra Serrana Occidental

Official 2nd prize winner 'Stand For Trees remix contest' launched by Bomba Estéreo & SKIO Music.

It has been a pleasure to work on this beautiful initiative launched by Simón Mejía (Bomba Estéreo) and SKIO Music where music, once again, is a very powerful tool to carry out great initiatives like #StandForTrees.

Ha sido un placer trabajar en esta preciosa iniciativa lanzada por Simón Mejía #BombaEstereo y SKIO Music donde la música, una vez más, es una herramienta muy poderosa para llevar a cabo grandes iniciativas como Stand For Trees.

#SavageProject

Chibi Chibi

Chibi Chibi (Savage Project Remix)

Simón Mejía, Bomba Estéreo - Chibi Chibi (Savage Project Remix)

Buy / Stream here:

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2ZsYg91
Apple Music: https://apple.co/3ga8rFg
Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/3bUdAhp

Bandcamp (Buy LP): https://bit.ly/349B8MM

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Populous, aka Andrea Mangia, DJ and producer hailing from Lecce, in Southern Italy, is excited to announce his new album “W,” due out May 22nd with tastemaker imprint Wonderwheel Recordings. The new album “W," for women, is Populous’ tribute to free and diverse feminine musical imagery. Inspired by women who sing, write, compose and play and for Populous are both icons and friends, hai from Italy, Japan, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. “W” is also a celebration of femininity beyond stereotypes, less defined by gender rather a common uniqueness that is the perfect response to the uniformity imposed by the machismo still reigning in the music industry. With the new album, Populous has opened up about his queer identity, making his first queer-identifying musical statement. From songs to artwork, he has created a visual manifesto to present feminine musical imagery. The artwork was conceived together with Nicola Napoli (a digital artist in Berlin’s queer scene) it is, in Populous’ own words, the representation of “a utopian party we would have done anything to be invited to.” An eclectic crossover party, improbable yet coherent, where you’d meet Grace Jones and Missy Elliott, Loredana Bertè and RuPaul, Aaliyha and Amanda Lear, Beth Ditto and Divine while dancing to shamanic house, digital cumbia, vogue beat and glitch electronica. Populous is accompanied on each track by the independent artists he admires most: Sobrenadar, Kaleema, Sotomayor, Emmanuelle, Barda, Weste, Cuushe and the Italian M¥SS KETA, L I M, Matilde Davoli and Lucia Manca. Collaborations born of discovering one’s sexual freedom, from perpetual motion, from constant traveling, physical and musical. With a background in musicology, Populous is known for his global approach to music-making. He has always been interested in disparate genres and styles of music, which is reflected in the output from the Populous project and its focus on Latin American sounds as refracted through a European lens. In 2003, Mangia made his first jaunt into the music world with the album ‘Quipo’ (via Morr Music), followed by ‘Queue For Love’ in 2005. Influenced by his reggae/hip-hop-infused surroundings (Lecce is known as Italy’s Jamaica, as reggae and dancehall are extremely popular there) he released ‘Drawn in Basic’ in 2008, which was well received by international critics, earning him a spot on the global dance music map. The 2010s have seen Mangia refine the Populous sound with albums like ‘Night Safari’ (Bad Panda Records) and ‘Azulejos’ (Wonderwheel Recordings), while also expanding his role as a sound designer for fashion houses such as Gucci, Vivienne Westwood, Isabel Marant, and Elie Saab, among others. ‘W’ releases on Wonderwheel Recordings May 22nd.

Buy LP

Populous & Barda - Banda

Savage Project es un dúo audiovisual de música electrónica con origen en la ciudad de Málaga formado por los productores musicales 1010!, beatmaker/DJ, y Sossia In Session, artista visual/VJ. Los Salvajes, como también se hacen llamar, desarrollan su propio sonido explorando diferentes subgéneros como la Cumbia Digital, el Global Bass o los géneros más representativos de sus raíces afro-andaluzas como el flamenco.

Simón Mejía, Bomba Estéreo - Chibi Chibi (Savage Project Remix)

Savage Project

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