Following the viral success of her ancestral music on social media, Martina Camargo releases Canto y Río, her new album, available on digital platforms since May 31, 2024.
Martina Camargo is the internationally renowned singer of Tambora, an Afro-Colombian roots music tradition from the Loba region in the rural Caribbean.
Martina Camargo’s unique voice went viral on social media with songs such as Guataquí and Me robaste el sueño, which have accumulated millions of streams in recent years and propelled many viral remixes and versions in other languages. Nevertheless, she has spread the Afro-Colombian Tambora tradition through a 36-year career worldwide, performing in Colombia, Spain, Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, Egypt, Lebanon, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina.
Tambora music is characterized by call-and-response structures featuring a lead singer, communal singing, clapping, and artisan drums.
Canto y Río’s repertoire consists of twelve tracks, mainly composed by Martina. Poetically, Martina meshes her village’s ancestry and cultural identity with emotions such as joy, nostalgia, and empathy, adding a profound depth and nuance to her ancestral sound. The album presents a diverse musical amalgam
addressing subjects such as women’s empowerment in La Pollera, Colombia’s armed conflict displacement in Me echaron del monte, the contemplation of nature in Tutumbú, Plantas medicinales, and Linda nuestra tierra, children’s games in Requema, and the longings of romance in El kikí, among others.
The album’s title plays with its words’ polysemic meanings in Spanish: “canto” (“singing [as a practice]” or “I sing”) and “río” (“I laugh” or “river”). For Martina, “río” alludes to the Magdalena river that crosses Colombia as an essential fulcrum of life, which she has always sung about, and to the act of laughing. Martina explains, “Canto y río (I sing and laugh) to face adversities, especially in a region where my family was a victim of threats and displacement by armed actors, which I narrate in the song Me echaron del monte.”
A production novelty of Canto y Río lies in its acoustic representation of nature by using recorded soundscapes and emulating them with human voices. In La Raya, the choir imitates animal sounds, creating a festive polyrhythm, while Tutumbú showcases birdsongs in Martina’s native Loba region, thanks to a soundscape recorded by Carlos Venecia. These depictions propose to reflect on the ecological defense of life against modernity’s threats: “It was my father’s tenet,” states Martina. “Since the 1970s, he already had an environmental consciousness and warned us about the problems we suffer today because of abusing nature.”
For Martina, La Pollera synthesizes the ethos of her new album. The song is a joyful berroche (a Tambora subgenre) packed with women’s resistance and empowerment histories. In her words, “The song shows our struggles and the role of women in society and Tambora in which singing, enjoying, and laughing are part of our delight as women. That is Canto y Río.”
ALBUM CREDITS
MARTINA CAMARGO are:
Martina Camargo Centeno, lead vocals.
Daniela Mierth Camargo, backing vocals, claps.
María Camila Martínez Gómez, backing vocals.
Luz Stephanie Jiménez Ballestas, backing vocals.
Janer Amarís Orozco, tambor currulao, claps.
Gabriel Vega Arrieta, tambora, claps.
Guest musicians:
Lali De la Hoz, backing vocals, guapirreos.
Sarai Salem, backing vocals.
Melisa García, backing vocals.
Liliana Belmonte, backing vocals on 5, 6, 7 and 12.
Freddy Henríquez, onomatopoeic nature vocalizations on 10
Music Producers: Freddy Henríquez and Manuel García-Orozco (Chaco)
Executive Producers: Martina Camargo Centeno, David Lara (Karibona World Music)
Musical Director and Arranger: Freddy Henríquez
Recorded by Robert Castillo and Alfonso Cárdenas Veloth at ACV Record Production in Cartagena, Colombia.
Soundscapes recorded by Carlos Venecia Charry in San Martin de Loba and Manuel García-Orozco (Chaco)in Palenque, Caribbean Colombia.
Mixing Engineer: Mauricio Cano
Mastering Engineer: Camilo Silva F Cover Design: Daniela Mierth
Cover Photos: David Lara, Daniela Mierth
