El Mito de la Pérgola

If any musician is going to reconfigure the airy strangeness of Andean music, Chilean singer Pascuala Ilabaca might be the one to do it. Elements of her native folk traditions are mashed up melodiously with Indian classical music, klezmer, contemporary rock, cabaret, jazzy scat and Latin genres such as son jarocho and milonga to produce a young, vivacious sound. Her band, Fauna, switch easily between carnivalesque heat and super-cool control.

The title of this, her seventh album, translates as ‘The Myth of the Bandstand’, and alludes to a need to take music on to the plazas and streets and revive the idea of communal art. There is an implied ambiguity in the energetic beats and keening melodies: are we reviving something or longing for it? As a young singer-songwriter raised in post-Pinochet, neo-liberal Chile, Ilabaca is alert to the weighty heritage of indigenous music and its anti-establishment edge. She often sounds defiant, despite her sweet, almost child-like voice, and makes superb use of her Indian vocal training. A genuine one-off in Latin America, this singularly talented musician could and should go global.