Marimba del Pacífico

Spanish-speaking South America's African music remains a largely untold story. For more than two centuries the culture of those descended from slaves and escaped slaves has been marginalised and ignored by historians. This stunning and important release from AYA Records – an imprint of Argentinian electronic music label ZZK – showcases the music of the Ecuador-Colombia border region, close to the Pacific coast. The marimba – that xylophone-like percussion instrument of Bantu origin – is a key part of the native sound, providing a sweet, yet spectral rippling pulse against which male and female voices soar and improvise. The songs reference the sugarcane plantations of the artists' ancestors and the sea that brought them, and now inspires thoughts of the past and a lost homeland. Spanish lyrics are delivered in styles deriving from the Caribbean and West Africa, which somehow rescues familiar words like corazón (heart) and cabeza (head) from their overuse as clichés in forms like cumbia and salsa. While pared down, the sound of Rio Mira is rich and seductive, and sheds a new light on the roots music of the region. Afro-Ecuadorean music rarely gets the attention it deserves, but Marimba del Pacífico should help set the record straight.