Emergency Music for a New Bolivia

[donsu]

http://www.salonchingon.com/cinema/rios_profundos.php?city=ny

A Video and a City: Parafonista and El Alto

“The feeling of sharing comes from below, from the people that have always sustained this land with persistence, unconcerned with the objections of outsiders. From there we came, and there shall we go,” said Alvaro Montenegro to me a few days ago in his studio. His words, completely out of context, could be used in Bolivia to speak of politics, or sports, or art. But Montenegro, one of the most creative and refined Bolivian musicians in these difficult times, was speaking of the spirit that drives Republica, the new album by Parafonista, the La Paz-based fusion group that he has led for three years. That day, we went over the preparations for the disk’s release party in the Municipal Theater, and watched the music video for the piece “Los ríos profundos” (“The Deep Rivers”). We present that video, here today, exclusively, for several good reasons. I’ll explain three:

1. For all of you out there, outside of Bolivia and far from El Alto, it is your best chance to get a look at the city that took on and defeated power just over a year ago, giving the people new hope. The video is a display of pain and rage, of the unstoppable force of people organized to resist a tyrant that had been selling their common patrimony to transnational corporations. It is a portrait of the city that rose up to topple then-President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada even as its fallen lay dead in the streets. Angelino’s images are powerful, working in perfect harmony with the intensity of the insurrection and the profoundity of the music.
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the video is almost 5 min. and you can listen to a snippet of 4 songs out of 10 on the CD