Aterciopelados bring their alternative Latin organic rock to Oz
Colombian music icons Aterciopelados will visit Australia for the first time ever with an East Coast tour that will take their Grammy Award winning sound to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra during the October long week end. This celebration of alternative Latin music by one of the most important Latino rockers will be an opportunity to introduce Australian audiences to a sound that has swept the Americas and created megastars along the way.
Accompanied by some of the best musicians in Colombia during their visit to Australia, the pair is renowned for creating magic onstage. Bandleaders Andrea Echeverri and Hector Buitrago have forged a long time creative relationship, which has been described as the source for Aterciopelados’ musical genius. “We have had quite a musical career, which has evolved over the years through our own identity search and experimentation, finding our own sound,” Echeverri says. “We really complement each other musically in a way that works. And more important than anything, we have love and respect for each other.”
The band is well known for their political activism and their work for environmental and human rights issues. Their latest album, Rio, is a call to action that finds Aterciopelados at a new level of creativity and musicality. It coincides with a proposed Colombian constitutional referendum that declares a citizen’s right to clean drinking water is a basic human right. “When I was growing up, the Bogotá River was considered a mythic and iconic place, and now it’s a tiny stream,” says Echeverri.
As Time Magazine put it, Aterciopelados true skill lies in its ability to take north-of-the-border musical styles — rock, pop and punk — and breathe new life into them, all while giving them a distinctly Colombian sheen. ‘Rio’ was recorded in the band’s hometown of Bogotá and mixed by Hector Castillo (Brazilian Girls, David Bowie, and Gustavo Cerati) in New York City. Latinos and Australians of all backgrounds will certainly enjoy Aterciopelados impassioned, socially conscious signature organic rock sound as the shows will include many of their trademark songs.
The tour is supported by the recently reopened Colombian diplomatic mission in Australia as a chance for Australians to discover a fascinating county and experience how the richness of Colombian culture permeates through the work of contemporary Colombian artists.
TIME MAGAZINE said… “Musical mavericks often reject the past; this Colombian electro-rock duo is dragging its traditions into the present, marinating its songs in South American rhythms.”NEW YORK TIMES reported… “Aterciopelados (“Velvety Ones”) are one of the most important and most likable bands in current Latin rock. The group is led by the songwriters Andrea Echeverri, the lead singer, and Hector Buitrago, the bassist. They annex and combine styles with a merry disregard for boundaries: new wave, lounge music, reggae, bossa nova, electro, hard rock, bolero, Mexican banda, house, rumba-rock and straightforward pop anthems, not to mention surf-rock lead-guitar lines” and BILLBOARD concluded…“The miracle of Aterciopelados is that it backs up its message songs with beautiful, infectious music…