Los Duendes de la Marimba

This album was recorded in the house of the Torres family (keepers of the Torres dynasty, masters of Colombia’s Pacific Coast music for generations) with marimbas and hand drums hanging from the ceiling, in a house made entirely out of wood. Albums featuring the marimba are becoming more popular, but too often they’re recorded in the studio. Following on from an album last year by Espíritu Balanta y Estrellas de Timbiquí, this recording by Dinastía Torres was made in their home. There are moments where the vocals of the two marimba-playing singers Pacho and Genaro Torres overlap, both repeating a phrase that they slowly modulate, while the marimbas and cununo (hand drums) do the same, layers of rhythm locking and unlocking, undulations of emotion, joy and melancholia taking it in turns to bubble to the surface. And there’s real variety, from the delicate notes of ‘Canto de Boga por Pacho Torres’ to ‘Ya Repunta el Agua’, with its waves of rasping percussion and hustling hand drums that hit like a hammer, its power unrelenting. This is one of those rare field recordings where the music is captured perfectly, the emotions and natural resonances intact, creating a beautiful document of the Torres family and their mastery of Pacific Coast traditions.