Meridian Brothers
| Meridian Brothers | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Bogotá (Colombia) |
| founding | 1998 |
| Website | meridianbrothers.com |
| Founding members | |
Singing, guitar, electronics |
Eblis Javier Álvarez |
| Current occupation | |
Singing, guitar, electronics |
Eblis Álvarez |
Guitar, bass |
César Quevedo |
Percussion |
Damián Ponce |
Electronics, synthesizers |
Alejandro Forero |
Saxophone, clarinet, percussion, synthesizer |
Maria Angélica Valencia |
Meridian Brothers are an avant-garde band founded in Bogotá in 1998 , whose trademark is the mixing of different musical styles and electronic sound experiments with Latin American rhythms.
history
Eblis Álvarez founded the Meridian Brothers in 1998 as a solo project. Initially his music was based on Latino rock, which he alienated through alternative ways of playing instruments and electronic means. At that time, the project was financed through the sale of self-produced music cassettes. In 1998 he joined the short-lived avant-garde band Ensamble Polifónico Vallenato , which mixed cumbia music with electronic effects, and then began to incorporate cumbia influences into the music of his Meridian Brothers project. Over the years he added elements of Colombian music from the 1960s and 70s to his style. From 2009 he added a solid base of musicians to the project for live performances, so that the Meridian Brothers see themselves as a band today. Since the release of the 2012 album Desesperanza on the renowned British Soundway label, the band has also gained international recognition . In 2012, British DJ and label owner Gilles Peterson included the track Guarancha UFO in his list of the best pieces played on his BBC show in 2012. In 2013 the band played at the Roskilde Festival and Les Transmusicales in Rennes and was voted 'Artist of the Week' on MTV Iggy in early March .
style
The basic structure of the music of the Meridian Brothers are Latin American rhythms such as cumbia or vallenato . Set pieces of various musical styles are placed over these beats, from funk to electro pop to minimal techno. Characteristic are minimalist synthesizer melodies in the style of low-priced home organs , which give the music a retro element.
Discography
- 2005: El advenimiento del castillo mujer (La Distritofónica)
- 2009: Este es el Corcel Heroico que nos Salvará de la Hambruna y Corrupción (La Distritofónica)
- 2011: Meridian Brothers VII (La Distritofónica)
- 2012: Desesperanza (Soundway)
- 2013: Devoción (Works 2005 - 2011) ( Staubgold )
- 2014: Salvadora Robot (Soundway)
- 2015: Los Suicidas (Soundway)
- 2017: ¿Dónde Estás María? (Soundway)
- 2020: Cumbia Siglo XXI (Les Disques Bongo Joe)
Side projects
Álvarez plays guitar in the Colombian cumbia band Frente Cumbiero and has been leading the less electronically oriented band Los Pirañas since 2010, which released three albums by 2019, including on the German indie labels Staubgold and Glitterbeat . Ponce is a composer and arranger of classical music and, in addition to his work with the Meridian Brothers, has released several solo albums whose music has been played at classical music festivals in Bogotá and Havana. Forero and Valencia operate the Bogotá-based record label La Distritofónica . Quevedo is a classical guitarist and part of the guitar trio trip trip trip .
Web links
- Official website
- Band portrait on Culturebase.net
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview with Mario Galeano
- ↑ Band page of the Soundway label ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Best of 2012 on Peterson's website ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ PremierGuitar.com: Los Pirañas' Twisted Colombian Gold. Retrieved June 17, 2020 .
- ↑ Profile on the website of the Círculo Colombiano de Música Contemporánea (Spanish)
- ↑ Interview on MTVIggy.com
