Mito y Comadre reinvent traditional Venezuelan music through an array of electronic styles for ZZK Records, as well the migrant experience. Guillermo Lares (Mito) and Shana (Comadre) met in Bogota, Colombia, their honouring of indigenous culture and its history of resistance can be heard on their album Guajirando. Shana lives in Bogota having left Venezuela in 2017 during the economic crisis.
The title-song mentions Venuzuealan places evoking the artists’ childhood, such as Guajira, Choroní, Paparo, Sinaruco and Sinamaica – also alluding to fantastic places like Totumito, El Cocuyo, Guarapito and Turicamo, which exist only in the imagination and cannot be found on maps – while highlighting the Wayuu indigenous culture and is a tribute to the legendary warrior Amilvacar of the Venezuelan Amazon, renowned for her power and resistance.
The album is produced by Grammy winner Christian Castagno (Bomba Estéreo, Systema Solar, Iggy Pop, Arcade Fire).
The record features a massive array of traditional instruments – like the quitiplás, the malembe and the quichimba of Barlovento, the macizón of the Caribbean coast, the flauta guajira and the gaita oriental, among others. The sound and history of these percussion and wind instruments are second nature to producer Guillermo who was brought up in a house with his father Oswaldo Lares, a musicologist and founder of Fundalares, an organisation that works to preserve Venezuela’s musical heritage – Guillermo was responsible for the ArchivOlares, an organisation created to preserve and share the riches and wisdom of a traditional Venezuelan music archive that Lares senior recorded on his travels around Venezuela between 1960 and 1980.
Shana’s artistic background spans further than music – and is an actress, model as well as a singer and performer, being originally from Macuto in the north of Venezuela. Living in Bogotá she has stayed in touch with her spirit of empathy for social struggles in her home country, involved in various humanitarian initiatives.
WORLD TREASURES MUSIC 