Picaflor

If this album had been credited to Los Hijos de Bruhn you’d be in no doubt that this is the work of a rejuvenated Andean orchestra; in fact, it is the work of one man, recording at home during lockdown. Argentinian percussionist and composer Martin Bruhn is one of those musicians whose names is pre-eminent among other musicians, having worked with Lila Downs, Natalia Lafourcade, Jorge Drexler and others, but is little known to the public. Picaflor is his homage to the huayno orchestras of Peru’s Andes, and it’s a remarkable thing. In the most part Bruhn tackles some of his favourite huaynos, many of which are quite obscure, assimilating the raw, blustery brass of these numbers, while adding extra emphasis on the bass and percussion, often the thinnest element in Peruvian records of yore. On ‘Popurrí de Festejos’ he even pays tribute to Afro-Peru, but it’s the last three tracks, all originals, that really show his class as a composer. ‘Akuie’ is achingly beautiful, with a quasi-Chinese feel, not unlike David Byrne’s The Last Emperor theme; ‘Cumbia Picaflor’ gives the quintessential Latin rhythm a laid-back Caribbean calm, and ‘Ases’ is a dub percussion jam that discombobulates.