NL premiere

Chuquimamani-Condori is the Aymara name of the California-based artist belonging to the Great Pakajaqi nation, currently occupied by the states of Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Following their lauded earlier releases under different project names, Chuquimamani-Condori arrives in their wake to set them alight and create something new in their ashes. They take the magical use of sampling and cultural collaging that has formed the bedrock of their sound and bury them deep under a layer of spirited, distorted, and noise-encrusted soil. Their latest album DJ E (2023), self-released and giddy in its unmastered rawness, is a maximalist montage of joy. A collage of familiar and new sounds, it is wonderful and bizarre – featuring a credit for their father playing the circular saw and their brother on guitar – yet deeply sensitive and touching as well. The triumphant melodies of “Know,” both sung and flute-blown, tell stories of hope for transformation and change, while the huayño and kaluyo melodies of “Engine” bring visions of hazy sun-burnt evenings on remote dancefloors. Flutes swarm through “Return” as a compressed choral backing of chanting and singing slips through the cacophony of synth-pads and crushed percussion—signalling a deep connection with the Andean huayño and kullawada ceremonial music that is part of Chuquimamani-Condori’s inheritance and obligation of ayni or reciprocity.