Née: Felipe Alarcón, Néstor Gatica, Felipe Moreno, and Francisco Campos.
Raíces: Puente Alto, Chile
Sounds Like: A bit of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” with Chilean folklore
You should listen to Enjundia because… you have nostalgia for South American folklore, but can’t stay away from that electro prog rock.
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Hailing in 2009, Chile’s jazzy folk quartet Enjundia began their musical project with the idea to combine experimental music that linked to the occult roots of Chile’s folklore. For those unfamiliar, Chile’s folk revival of the mid-sixtes, during Pinochet’s dictatorship, is an interesting case of how it inspired the rise of the New Chilean Song Movement. Primarily lead by Victor Jara and Violeta Parra, this musical movement aimed to rescue Chile’s folklore that took on a political mantle by singing songs in traditional form with contemporary concerns. As of more recent, we’ve seen other political upheavals evidently reflected in Chile’s student movement crisis, on which several Chilean artists nowadays have written songs such as Ana Tijoux’ “Shock,” Adrianigual’s “Arde Santiago.”
Enjundia takes on a similar approach, in lyrical idealism, while aesthetically conserving their native sounds and intermingling them with contemporary influences. Their latest EP Flor de Libertad, (which is the sampler of their full-length Por los Vivos y los Difuntos out March 2012) carries three distinct tracks. The title-track resonates a chant similar to those heard in political rallies, while the 11-min instrumental “Tinku” blends experimental prog rock, sludgy electro riffs, and pan flute melodies. “Verso por Literatura” is perhaps my favorite of the three which carries delicate poetic harmonies, beautiful electric arpeggios, and narrates a historical landscape of their homeland. All in all, Enjundia is a truthful, creative, and realistic musical project that represents the nostalgia and the sociocultural sensibilities of their native Puente Alto, Santiago.
