Words by Justin Turford
If a record cover can convey the possibilities of the music contained within then ‘Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol’ has such a cover. The richness of a culture’s history viewed through a modern lens, where ancestral magic meets the soil.
Luzmila Carpio is a remarkable woman with half a century in the game and with more than 25 albums in both her native Aymara-Quechua language and Spanish under her belt. From the Potosí region of the Bolivian Andes, she is a voice of resistance and resilience, her continuing activism for female empowerment, indigenous struggles and in the case of this album, a deep cry of love for the planet and environment, an inspiration for many.
Like the late, great Brazilian singer Elza Soares, Luzmila feels no pressure to play it safe and remain in one place musically. To reach a wider audience, one must widen your palette, and again like Soares, age doesn’t mean experimentation is for the young. Teaming up with Argentine producer Leonardo Martinelli (a.k.a. Tremor), a man committed to the possibilities between folkloric traditions and electronic soundscapes, together they have created a dazzling record imbued with mystical powers and emotional strength.
Luzmila Carpio - Photograph by Nora Lezano
Her first album in a decade coincides with a golden period of Latin and South American electronica and comes off the back of a remix project from 2015 - Luzmila Carpio Meets ZZK collection - where her music was reworked by Tremor, and globally renowned players such as Nicola Cruz, Chancha Vía Circuito and El Búho.
'Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol' means ‘Return to the Sun’ in both Quechua and Spanish, but the album has been created for everyone and intended to reach across the globe with her message relayed using various instruments of the world alongside non-invasive electronic drums and warm synthetic textures.
‘Kacharpayita’ opens the record with a lovely, celebratory song about a farewell party. A thumping drum (probably an Argentinian bombo legüero) creates an almost marching song atmosphere as a strummed charango, spacey keys and violins swirl around Luzmila’s delightfully catchy vocal. A traditional sounding song calling everyone to sing and dance with love for the person leaving - an irresistible start!
Beginning with a twinkling glockenspiel melody, ‘Chakana Sagrada’ is a densely layered ode about sowing seeds in the light of the Constellation of the Southern Cross (Azucenita). A loose yet complex bateria of drums and a sub bass are the workhorses, Andean flutes and subtle synth pads breathing behind her ritualistic and repetitive vocals. One could imagine this as a song that the women sing in the field, its propulsive tempo, the thrust to complete the day’s tasks.
The heartbreaking ‘Requiem Para un Ego’ is a harmonium led lament about loss. She sings about no-one coming to see her off as she left (where?) suggesting that she didn’t do right for her people. With a refrain in Spanish - “No-one remembered me, little dove” - it is easy to read the song as an allegory about a loss of faith or of habitat. Regardless, Luzmila still manages to make this a thing of great funereal beauty, her voice aching with regret.
‘Hacia la Luz’ is a short piece of profound communion. Luzmila’s wordless voice fading into a graceful even orchestral moment of electronic and live instrumentation, the bombo legüero setting the rhythm as a swirl of strings and flutes raise its hands to the sky.
Luzmila Carpio - Photograph by Nora Lezano
The title song ‘Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol’ is a celebration of the divinity of Father Sun and a call to return the next day. Sublime interplay between the percussion and various stringed instruments respond to Luzmila’s incantations, her ringing voice quivering with emotional resonance.
To my uneducated ear ‘Sumaq Kawsay Mañarimuy - Pide un Buen Vivir’ sounds somehow Japanese! The language, cadence and even the complex percussion seem to contain at least some of Japan’s DNA. (Piqued by this I did a little digging and although there isn’t a general agreement amongst linguists, I found THIS article which kind of agrees with me). The song itself is a call to the Supreme Being to bring rain and abundance, the haunting sound of an Armenian duduk flute adding to the song’s propulsive mystery. One of my initial favourites from the album.
Translated as ‘The Joy of the Great Stag’, ‘La Alegria del Gran Venado’ is a joyful observation of nature in communion as the stag plays in the fields with her llama. A romantic sway serves the song with picked guitar and charango, hand percussion and bells shake as though on her wrists and ankles (perhaps they are), as the violin and pipes grow in a wave of energy around her hypnotic refrain till end.
‘Ofrenda de los Pajaros’ exemplifies Luzmila’s joi de vivre as much as any song here. Atmospheric and cheerful, she communicates to the birds with childlike wonder, her words as they are, veering between whistles, a toddler’s bird chatter and mentions of her family as though her remembrance is still her present. A piece of great charm and a good reminder to view the world with awe and not with jaded adult eyes.
The album closes with ‘Pachamama desde el Cosmos’, a stunning song of praise to the Great Mother of the Universe and the Earth. Alex Musatov’s violin reaches the stars on this piece as Leonardo weaves his ceremonial ambience.
“My Mother Earth,
Big potatoes you give…
Big onions.
Mother Earth, watch over us..”
An album to return to over and over when it feels like the modern world is just too much. She may be 74 now but Luzmila’s heart and voice is as young as a fawn, her shared knowledge as old as her land. 'Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol' is a gently ravishing album from her and Leonardo Martinelli that gives me hope. 10/10
Released on ZZK on September 21 2023
BUY HERE! https://luzmilacarpio.bandcamp.com/album/inti-watana-el-retorno-del-sol