For several years, my ears and senses have been upended by the grooves coming out of Colombia. It started with hearing the band Bomba Estereo whose upbeat, take-no-prisoners song \u201cSo Yo\u201d was suddenly everywhere \u2014 NPR’s music rotation, a Tiny Desk<\/a> concert and local public radio station WNRN placing it on playlists, too \u2014 helped propel the band to new heights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then I came across the big band Ondatropica, which got together when two music producers happened to meet outside of a record shop on the streets of Bogota, each carrying an armful of albums. They discovered both loved certain sounds and decided to pull a bunch of session musicians together, create a band and put out an amazing record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, the duo Monsieur Perin\u00e9 have landed on my digital turntable. The band, led by singer Catalina Garcia and multi-instrumentalist Santiago Prieto, have just released their first album in five years: Bolero Apocaliptico. It\u2019s filled with so much incredible grooves, with nods to old style, Django Reinhardt jazz to salsa and cumbia to fusions of reggae and Brazilian bossa nova. It\u2019s a record that I think will stand the test of time and be revisited over and over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Underneath those grooves are messages sung by Garcia, who sings Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese, of same-sex love, like in the song “T\u00fa Y Yo<\/a>,\u201d \u2014 which tells the tale of two female lovers \u2014 to tracks like \u201cProm\u00e9teme<\/a>\u201d that mix sarcasm and love and the effects that climate change is having in Bogota and around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Loosely translated<\/a>, Garcia sings, \u201cThat we will continue together when the world has ended\/When river water reaches the polluted sea\/Swimming in plastic, but by your side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I spoke with Monsieur Perin\u00e9 when the East Coast was covered by heavy smoke drifting down from Canada. We talked about how they balance writing about love and climate change without preaching, how they cultivate their sound and how the pandemic influenced Bolero Apocaliptico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Garcia said working their new record was \u201clike going to therapy \u2026 the feeling, the energy we had to transform, the process was a time to heal … making music was a time for joy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After listening to their new record, and speaking with them, I think we can all use a little more joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Posted from: https:\/\/www.vpm.org\/listen\/2023-06-17\/interview-monsieur-perine-colombia-latin-music<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n