Join us Friday, July 25th alongside ZZK Records for a special listening session with Colombian innovator Eblis Álvarez.

“Think Zappa meets Joe Arroyo, Kraftwerk crashes into Andrés Landero.” For the past three decades, Colombian multi-instrumentalist Eblis Álvarez has carved his own path in contemporary Latin music by fusing traditional styles and rhythms (vallenato, cumbia, bullerengue, palenquero, gaita, and Latin-American folk) with avant-garde electronics, electro-acoustic experimentation, and a uniquely psychedelic approach to computer programming (read his interview with Ableton live here).

A classically trained musician, Alvarez entered the conservatory at just eight years old studying guitar and composition; a formal training which has allowed him to bend the rules and time itself. “I often compose melodies at different speeds and time signatures, but related to a master tempo. This effect actually divides the perception of the music, giving it an unusual effect, like something familiar but moving faster or slower than expected.” His various projects, including Meridian Brothers, Los Pirañas, and Chupame El Dodo, are all deeply psychedelic and rhythmically rich with various echo’d sounds, unconventional guitar techniques, and surrealist vocals.

This Friday, Álvarez will make a rare appearance at In Sheep’s Clothing HQ in West Hollywood for a special listening party exploring the musical story of Bogota, Colombia and the city’s contemporary music scene through a selection of records, a Q&A, and DJ set. Don’t miss it!

Limited tickets are available now through dice.

In anticipation of the listening event, we’ve shared some background on Álvarez’s various musical incarnations along with some our favorite tracks from these projects.

Meridian Brothers

Meridian Brothers is a contemporary neo-tropicalista group founded in 1998 from the interests of Eblis Álvarez (composer and multi-instrumentalist) as a musical laboratory for small audiences and distributed at the time in cassette format. The style of Meridian Brothers is part of the neo-tropicalista movement in Colombia taking place at the beginning of the 21st century. The roots of the group can be found in the ephemeral Ensamble Polifónico Vallenato project, where its members (Eblis Álvarez among them) dedicated to experiment with influences from traditional Colombian music such as vallenato, cumbia, Bullerengue, ‘palenquero’ sextet format, ‘Gaita’ format, etc.

Starting in 2007, the project became a live act formed by a group university friends: María Valencia (wind instruments, percussion and keyboards), Eblis Álvarez (vocals, guitar and direction), Mauricio Ramírez who joined the band in 2016, replacing Damián Ponce (Drums), Alejandro Forero (keyboards), César Quevedo (bass) and in sound engineering, Alejandro Araujo (replacing Juan Camilo Montañéz).

Revisit our feature “Meridian Brothers: Retro-Futurist Cumbia and Psychedelic Tropical Music from Colombia.”

Over the years, Meridian Brothers has earned a reputation as a cult band in Latin America. The group has been cataloged by music journalists as a futuristic avant-garde proposal, which preserves roots reminiscences of Latin music, due to its sound, style and theatrical expression.

In 2012, esteemed WorldwideFM radio host Gilles Peterson named Meridian Brothers’ “Guaracha UFO” one of the best songs of the year.

Los Pirañas

Described as “a psychedelic connection between champeta, afrobeat, rock and cumbia,” Los Pirañas is an international instrumental supergroup that has been pushing the boundaries of Latin tropical music for some time now. This band represents thé psychedelic sound of contemporary Colombia and has been spearheading the revival of the Colombian music scene.

For almost 30 year Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers), Mario Galeano (Frente Cumbiero, Ondatropica) and Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo) have been putting their eccentric stamp on Latinamerican styles like vallenato, Peruvian chicha, and Colombian champeta, just to name a few. Los Pirañas combine these styles with a rock attitude, noisy improvisations and absurd musical humor. Think of Captain Beefheart in an exotic mood. Completely crazy, but very danceable and enjoyable at the same time.

Alvarez: “We were jazz players in the ’90s. At some point, we got tired of that, of jazz or even free jazz, and we got into traditional music. Pedro got into afrobeat, Mario got into Colombian cumbia, so after a while, we just left jazz. I don’t play jazz anymore, but I think we kind of remain in that attitude towards music. “Let’s jam.” It’s like that. But, of course, in this two-layer improvisation system, we don’t jam like it’s jazz. We work with traditional melody. Cumbia, for example, Peruvian traditional melodies, Colombian traditional melodies. The rest is noise and rhythm.”

Chupame El Dedo

Chupame El Dedo is a group formed by Eblis Álvarez (Meridian Brothers) and Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo, Los Pirañas, Ondatrópica).

It was born out from a commission by Detlef Diederichsen, director of the ‘House of World Cultures’ in Berlin for a Festival called “Evil Music” or “Böse musik” in October 2013. The idea was to recreate a death metal group with influences of tropical music.

Recorded live at the Isaac Newton Studios in Bogota, the group’s self-titled 2014 debut album explores grindcore, speed and black metal cliches whilst marrying a tropical rhythm section made of salsa, cumbia, currulao & reggaeton.

The result is pure tropical madness, stylistic dislocation and very very fast drums. Head banging mojitos!