Mixtape 58

The new mixtape instalment comes from Ale Hop(aka Alejandra Cardenas) and Laura Robles. Cárdenas is a Berlin-based artist, researcher, and experimental instrumentalist from Lima, Peru. Earlier this year, together with Laura Robles (a percussionist and bassist formed from a very young age in the rich Afro-Peruvian and Cuban musical traditions and who also grew up in Lima), they released one of the most exciting albums of the year so far, Agua dulce (Buh Records, 2023). This mix takes on and reflects on the artists' inspiration for and during the Agua Dulce album production.

The album is titled after the most popular beach in Lima, agua dulce, near where both artists lived during their childhood, houses apart, without ever meeting one another. Years later, the pair met and joined forces, with Robles on a self-built electric cajón and Cárdenas on electric guitar and electronics.

With this album, both artists explore rhythmical structures that form the backbone of the complex Afro-Peruvian music and dance traditions – a broad term used for the various musical developments that occurred in the last two centuries at the shores of the Peruvian Pacific. The cajón originated in coastal Peru as a percussion instrument that the black slaves created from wooden fruit boxes when foot drums were banned at the end of the Spanish colonial era in the 19th century. And it was form Perú that the cajón was posterioly introduced into flamenco.

From its birth, the cajón was a symbol of resistance, experimentation and transformation. Robles and Cárdenas strived to maintain the instrument’s spirit and qualities by pushing the boundaries of its sound into the future. The duo’s mission isn’t merely capturing something sonically futuristic but is primarily concerned with shaking off the dust: These rhythms have become ossified nowadays, heard in Peruvian folklore shows and on the ‘global music’ circuit, but our desire is to experiment and do something more radical with them, connecting to the instruments more radical past, comments Cárdenas.

At the same time, this type of percussive instruments infuse the music with a very special physicality and spirituality; the percussion sounds entuned with our heartbeats. Both Robles and Cárdenas chatted to us about the meaning and influence of the cajón on their work.

Finally, the mix they have put together for us is a rare combination of very personal influences from each of them, with influences that informed the project and songs they find interesting from Peru.

Tracklist:

Ale Hop & Laura Robles - Agua Dulce

Nicomedes Santa Cruz - Aquí Está la Marinera/Mamita/Mi Señorita

Pochi Marambio y Tierra Sur - Canto a los Santos

Huayno Tradicional Prenda Querida con Andrés "Chimango" Lares

Andrés Soto - Quisiera Ser Caramelo

César Calvo La Despedida

Victoria Santa Cruz- Me Gritaron Negra! (Daniel Haaksman Edit)

Cañaris Incahuasi - Triste con Fuga de Huayno

Yma Sumac - Hampi (Medicine)

Banda San Miguel De Piura - La Perla del Chira

Los Jaivas - Cerro de la Virgen

Alice Coltrane - Jagadishwar

Aphex Twin - Ageispolis

Ale Hop & Laura Robles - Defensoras del morro

Miles Davis Bitches Brew (Live In Copenhagen, 1969)

Ayacucho traditional music - Harawi (women performing harawi before the plowing of the communal field)

Sun Ra - Solar Ship Voyage

Los Ases de Huarochirí - El pescadito

Oscar D'Leon - Llorarás (live)