Final Research Project Examination number Y4776846 Dept. of Music by Jorge Valencia University of York SENDEROS: A MUSICAL JOURNEY TO THE ANDES SUPPORTED BY ROCK AND ELECTRONIC ELEMENTS Jorge Valencia MA in Music Technology Supervisor: Dr. Ambrose Field August 31st 2010 1 Final Research Project Examination number Y4776846 Dept. of Music by Jorge Valencia University of York Abtract The following project intends to give a short duration album showing how to take South American Andean music into a different level, this task is approached in different ways. By the use of elements from rock and electronic music used to enrich the traditional Andean tunes, in addition to that, some exploration and experimentation with the instruments of the region is being held in order to get new sounds out of them, as well as new ways of mixing and panning them. 2 Final Research Project Examination number Y4776846 Dept. of Music by Jorge Valencia University of York Contents list Introduction................................................................................................................................. 4 State of Art.............................................................................................................................. 5 Personal backgrounds relevant to the project ......................................................................... 10 The album................................................................................................................................. 13 Tracklist ................................................................................................................................ 13 Description............................................................................................................................ 13 Future works ............................................................................................................................. 20 Conclusions............................................................................................................................... 22 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 23 Reference List ........................................................................................................................... 25 Books.................................................................................................................................... 25 Articles.................................................................................................................................. 26 Sound Recording................................................................................................................... 27 Web....................................................................................................................................... 27 3 Final Research Project Examination number Y4776846 Dept. of Music by Jorge Valencia University of York Introduction Folk music, by definition is a cultural expression attached to a determined society, consequently it accomplishes a vital role into the identity of any group of people. In addition to this, the right presentation of folkloric art will always be a firm root for a strong and confident culture. Despite of being a very wide continent, South America is well known for having very similar people and cultures all over the Andean territory, an area which comprehends from south to north, the countries of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. In music there are several genres that have been shared among these countries for the past century, conforming what we know today as ‘Andean Music’.1 After a very strong bloom in the middle of the twentieth century, a sort of lack of cultural nationalism has made of this music a weaker musical trend for the last decades. There has been no successful counterweight to the effect of globalization over the Andean cultures. The consequences of this have made of this cultural expression a minorities’ expression, almost excluded of massive broadcasting and publishing. While world musical trends have moved though the years, Andean music has experienced a fairly strong inertia, where a very small amount of evolution have been tried over it, therefore staying as an unattractive genre for younger generations who feel almost no connection with it. A consequence of that, is that this music is experiencing a huge lack of publishing and broadcasting of this material as it is not a mainstream genre and of course not very commercial. Therefore, it is 1 Broughton, Ellingham, Trillo, ‘World Music’, 273. 4 Final Research Project Examination number Y4776846 Dept. of Music by Jorge Valencia University of York quite natural that there is no gathering of new listeners. All this is really harmful for the genre and actions are required now to keep it alive. That’s why one of the biggest aims of this project is to gather some modern elements of the music nowadays and introduce it to this folkloric expression, so that any kind of audience can feel identified with what they hear, and we can recover some musical identity through one of our most valuable cultural expressions as the Andean music. State of Art It is well known that Latin American culture could be much older than it appears now. It will be never known for sure how much we lost during and after the Spanish conquest in 1492; hundreds of years of cultural development are still a mystery for mankind. In spite of that, there are some things that run in the blood streams that can be preserved for ages and they are part of an unavoidable idiosyncrasy and legacy attached to a determined society. Andean music could be a clear example of this postulate. This is emphasised since this music is not a very old manifestation in comparison to European or Eastern folk music. In the middle of the twentieth century, Andean countries went through drastic changes that were a very big influence for arts. Some nationalist revolutions in the heart of South America encouraged the development of the native art, what attracted the attention of many cultural movements interested in revolutionary social changes all over the continent. Whereupon, 1950’s was the start of a couple of decades that were the summit for the Andean music. 5 Final Research Project Examination number Y4776846 Dept. of Music by Jorge Valencia University of York The most famous and recognised bands and composers had their most productive era during the 1960s and 1970s. After that, the actual development of our music reached an almost static point, in part due to social reasons against imperialism; one of the biggest paradigms of the main composers at the time, was to keep the music as native as possible. They wanted to try to keep it away from any contact with main stream American and European music; thus no different instruments than the traditional ones should be included whilst all the songs should remain under any of the yet existing genres. Except for some attempts to cross boundaries with it; some of them are either completely underground or very poor productions and some of them had certain success and recognition, namely Los Jaivas2 and Miki Gonzalez3. Los Jaivas was probably the first band to try to fusion traditional Andean instruments with jazz and classic rock sounds. They have a mixture of own compositions and cover versions of previous existing traditional songs. A very good combination of traditional instruments and rock sounds can be heard on their music as well as some synthesisers and early electronic sounds. They are still playing and producing interesting material, but their style is the same than in the 1960s and 1970s, no big changes and exploration after their apex forty years ago. Miki González on the contrary has not stopped his musical evolution since he first started mixing Peruvian music with blues, rock and electronic music in the early 1980s, unfortunately, due to the heavy social content of his music, he was continuously censored and banned just like many other Andean musicians before. His last five albums (Café Inkaterra, Etnotronics: Apu Sessions, Iskay: Inka 2 Los Jaivas official website (accesed on 13 Aug 2010) 3 Miki Gonzalez official website (accesed on 13 Aug 2010) 6 Final Research Project Examination number Y4776846 Dept. of Music by Jorge Valencia University of York Beats, Hi Fi Stereo y Landó por Bulerías)4 show a very interesting exploration and research, where his Andean music gets very well integrated with very electronic sounds and a good production. In Peru, the bands ‘El Polen’5 and ‘del Pueblo del Barrio’6 also tried an ambitious mixture of native instruments and the Rock and Roll of the 1980s, but perhaps the lack of a good production sank the projects. In the same country by the same time, the band ‘Alborada’7 wanted to get again the ties existing between North and South America centuries ago by taking some elements of both lands and putting them together into a certain kind of North American Andean music, where not only music is involved but also a whole show of dance and visual performances; to be noticed also, that they are one of the few of the bands who sing in Quechua and Aymara, the main native languages of the Andean culture, getting a very nice mixture, but probably the insertion of North American folk with the Andean one, can turn out in some music where the essence of both cultures are blurred by each other. The Argentinean band ‘Arbolito’8 is a very good