A Cry for Revolution

Tradition, longevity, family and seniority are key values for indigenous Bolivians. It's fitting that this album celebrates 50 years of Los Ruphay, a group that played an early role in capturing a global audience for the panflutes, charango (lute), quena (flute) and martial drumming of the altiplano. Dedicated to the band's late founder, Mario P Gutiérrez, this new collection guides the listener through odes to fiestas, the elements, the snow-capped peaks, the sun and moon, and Pachamama – the earth-mother, to whose revolutionary creative force the album's title alludes. Melodies range from the soothing to the fierce, the sorrowful to the spiritual; the common link is that bewitching, bonding wind sound, a gesture of respect to the indomitability of those who dwell in the oxygen-poor high places. Most of the 12 tracks are instrumental; when there are lyrics, as on ‘Pachamamasti Llakitawa’ (Mother Earth is Sad), they're in Aymara – the language of La Paz and Lake Titicaca. Guest singer Luzmila Carpio's vocals are closer to Indian or Chinese classical music than anything European, demanding an effort of the imagination on the part of the listener. In the mass media, panpipes and ponchos often provoke derision; but this music could now be heard as the soundtrack to a possible future as well as that of an environmentally sensitive, profoundly intuitive past.