Ese puerto existe

'Ese puerto existe' is the sophomore album by Insólito UniVerso, a psychedelic dream towards sound and its powers of communication. The record explores the diverse geography, rhythms and traditions of their home country of Venezuela, through their own distinctive sound. On their debut album, ‘La Candela del Río’, the band created a magical Latin American sound of their very own, leading to critical acclaim from the likes of Songlines, Bandcamp, The Wire and many more; as well as a nomination for Best Group at the Songlines Award in 2020. Following a 2-track digital single released in 2020, the group continued to experiment with Venezuelan music in collaboration with other Paris-based musicians from their homeland, such as Manuel Sánchez and Rafael Mejias. At times, the music on this album reveals a more folkloric sound, rooted in the percussion instruments found across various styles of traditional Venezuelan music. However, the band don’t stop there and also enlist the estimable talents of free jazz drummer Francesco Pastacaldi and Lætitia Sadier of Stereolab fame. The album begins on the seashore with a gaita de tambora, a rhythm originating to the south of Lake Maracaibo, which gives the album its title; the song a cosmic invitation to feel the immensity of a grain of sand, and at the same time recognise one’s own inner center or port. . It continues inland with the trance of the joropo “Pajarillo con chipola”, followed by an Afro-diasporic tamunangue on the devotional “Tiento de batalla”. On the B side, the danceable rhythms of the big cities arrive, first with “El Chivo”, a merengue from Caracas featuring additional vocals from Laetitia Sadier, and later with “Ventana honda”, a gaita de furro from Maracaibo, a style often heard booming from sound systems during the festive period in December. The trip returns to the green and humid central coastal regions, and the Afro Venezuelan fulia drums of “Fulia del cacaotal”, a lament echoing the painful history of the coastal plantation. On bonus track, “Tonada del bip bip”, a solitary chant sounds in the distance, drawing a fine path of dust in the plains. The album is mixed by long-standing collaborator, Malcolm Catto, of the Heliocentrics, Eblis Alvarez, of Meridian Brothers fame, and Venezuelan engineer Fidel Goa. ‘Ese Puerto Existe’ questions the wide and alien, place and time, to perhaps point out the threshold, the center of each one, that port that exists within, inviting the listener to celebrate and dive into the immense and enveloping landscape of the seashore, the troubled green cacao plantation, and the inland plains.