{"id":26578,"date":"2020-08-21T11:42:24","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T15:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/interviews-panm360\/meridian-brothers-ou-la-cumbia-sens-dessus-dessous\/"},"modified":"2020-08-21T11:56:59","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T15:56:59","slug":"meridian-brothers-ou-la-cumbia-sens-dessus-dessous","status":"publish","type":"interviews","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/interviews-panm360\/meridian-brothers-ou-la-cumbia-sens-dessus-dessous\/","title":{"rendered":"Meridian Brothers, or cumbia upside down"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo: Mariana Reyes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meridian Brothers is the project that Colombian multi-instrumentalist Eblis \u00c1lvarez started in 1998, and which serves as a kind of musical laboratory to explore all kinds of Colombian and Latin American sounds, with a special affection for cumbia and salsa. \u00c1lvarez, who composes lyrics and music and generally records all the instruments found on the Meridian Brothers\u2019 albums, is however accompanied on stage by other musicians. Like the eight previous albums, the latest from Meridian Brothers distills an experimental cumbia spiced up with tropicalism, salsa, chicha, and vallenato, forming a playful, avant-garde and often completely wacky mix to which are added elements of rock, pop, new wave, and electro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Cumbia Siglo XXI<\/em>, Meridian Brothers\u2019 ninth album, \u00c1lvarez has taken a more electronic turn. After the resolutely acoustic \u00bfD\u00f3nde est\u00e1s Mar\u00eda?<\/em> released in 2017, the mad scientist of cumbia, who\u2019s active in Ondatr\u00f3pica, Frente Cumbiero, and Los Pira\u00f1as, among others, has tried a new experiement, taking Fernando Rosales and Ramiro Beltran’s group Cumbia Siglo XX, well known in the 1980s for its futuristic vision of cumbia, as a reference, along with other groups such as Grupo Folcl\u00f3rico and 2000 Voltios, for example. Taking the work of Rosales and Beltran as a source of inspiration, \u00c1lvarez has somehow adapted it to the 21st century, its instruments and tools. Thus, several drum machines, guitars, synths and software were used in the creation of this new album by Meridian Brothers, on which are found various urban beats, synth grooves, and glitches mixed with all sorts of swear words and Colombian slang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stuck at home in his neighbourhood in Bogot\u00e1 due to severe confinement, the versatile Eblis Alvarez was kind enough to deconstruct all this and explain his singular approach to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Mariana Reyes<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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PAN M 360: <\/strong>Eblis, can you elaborate on the link between this new Meridian Brothers album and the group Cumbia Siglo XX?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eblis <\/strong>\u00c1lvarez:<\/strong> When I started thinking about the style I wanted to give to this new album, I thought about this funky approach to tambor music that was mostly found in the area of Baranquilla, and on the Felito and Machuca labels, between the late \u201970s and the mid-\u201980s. It was a trend where they mixed more traditional music such as bujerengue, puya, cumbia, fandango, and drums associated with traditional music, with funky bass and disco grooves. So I wanted to try that same kind of approach, but in the 21st century. So I simply called this record Cumbia Siglo XXI<\/em>. But it’s not a 21st century cumbia record as we know it today, it’s a mix of different things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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