Pacífico meets Caribe: AGRUPACIÓN PATACORÉ AKOLÁ TAMBÓ + very special guest: NELDA PIÑA

Agrupación Patacoré

The musical group Patacoré, directed by Jhon Alex del Castillo, was formed in 2019 gathering musicians with a deep knowledge of the traditional music from the Pacific coast to build on the rich legacies of their ancestors to help preserve and push forward the culture. The group uses music to heal and reconcile families in their region, affected by armed conflicts, with the wider aim of sharing its culture globally.  Alongside their work developing cultural initiatives they have been performing extensively throughout Colombia and last year won the award for best traditional voice at the Petronio Alvarez Festival.

Nelda Piña 

With more than 70 years of age, Nelda inherited the cultural tradition of bailes cantaos from the musical tradition of the Colombian Caribbean. Her singing helps keep alive the Bullerengue, Chalupa, Son de Negro, and Cumbia, mestizo rhythms, Afro-descendant and Amerindian traditions. In more than 40 years of artistic career she has appeared in several compilations of Palenquero and Caribbean music in the 70s and 80s with labels such as Palenque Records and Felito Records. And more recently she also has two productions with the collaboration Nelda Piña y la BOA (Bogotá Orquesta Afrobeat).

Nelda was honored at the Barranquilla Carnival. She has performed Colombian folklore and also new sounds in Colombia (Cartagena, Barranquilla, Medellín, Cali, Bogotá) and abroad (Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and various countries in Europe) and her most recent album is called Eco de Mis Ancestros (2021)

Akolá Tambó

With their trance-inducing bullerengue Akolá Tambó – the first group of their kind in the UK – was born in London in 2020. Due to their geographical location, their objective has been to reconstruct, through practice and research, the ancestral legacy of this tradition in order to help keep it alive and share its healing power with the world.

The group has quickly gained recognition and become a reference within London’s Latin community, and they have been invited to perform at some of the community’s most important venues and stages They also participated at the María la Baja Bullerengue Festival in Colombia in December 2022.

Akolá presents a blaze of traditional Afro-Colombian beats that will take you on a journey to reconnect to the root. A high dose of drums, dance and mantra-like chants gives birth to this ancestral ritual in which everyone is invited to take part, unify their voices and become one.