Radiokijada

Peruvian-Afrobeat Fusion Ensemble

Gotan Project’s Christoph H. Müller and Peruvian percussionist Rodolfo Muñoz (Chinchivi, Sandunga) have teamed up to create RADIOKIJADA, a unique musical adventure based upon Afro Peruvian rhythms and culture, a crossover of powerful percussion, strong melodies, deep basslines and contemporary production methods. Afro Peruvian music is a unique blend of Spanish, Andean and African traditions. It’s history started tragically: with the forced movement of slaves that ended in South America in 15th/16th century. For a very long time forgotten by the audiences, it plays today an important role in Peru and has started to be known and appreciated internationally. Thanks to Afro Peruvian artists like Nicomedes and Victoria de Santa Cruz or the Vazquez family, rhythms like Lando, Zamacueca, Lamento, Panalivio, Pregon and Festejos have been kept alive and are very popular today. They are played by the new generation of musicians in Peru, and some of them participate in RadioKijada. RadioKijada have a contemporary approach to Afro Peruvian music whilst respecting its traditions. They confront Afro Peruvian percussion instruments like the Cajon Peruano or the emblematic Quijada (donkey’s jaw) with other traditional instruments like the Tambor Bata, and with European tradition of Electronica and Fusion, hence coming up with a new breed of popular dance music, very rhythmic and percussive but also melodic and vocal. The fusion of cultures, which started five centuries ago, goes on, and there are still many things to know and discover, not only for Peruvians but everybody.