Carried by the Current: Music of the Peruvian Amazon
Field Recordings by Sofia Pinedo-Padoch
Rounder (www.rounder.com)

Ethnographic field recordings are a dime a dozen. Many have great value, advancing the study of their respective areas; many are mere rehashings of over-trodden territory. What sets this one apart is the fact that it was recorded by a high school junior. In 2003, at a mere 16 years old, Sofia Pinedo-Padoch set out to record the music of her father's homeland of lowland Peru. The resulting CD shows her to have a deft hand with the recorder and a discerning ear for capturing a variety of the area's genres.

The eleven tracks, selected from ten hours of recordings, include dance music, funeral music, hymns, and more. The indigenous and the Iberian merge in tracks such as the Catholic hymn "Confia Siempre en Dios (Trust Always in God)," sung a cappella by a small women's choir and in "La Shicshi Rabo," an undulating nightclub song performed by a four-piece band. There is a raw funebre, a funeral song played on solo violin and sung ruefully by a recovering alcoholic. "Papel Sellado (Stamped Paper)" shows its Andean roots in its charango-like guitar accompaniment. The one-person flute-and-drum tradition prevalent in many other cultures makes its appearance here in "Cajada de Titín y Flauta," a dance performed by Daniel Ochabano.

Pinedo-Padoch's liner notes show a wide-eyed sense of detail for not just the music, but the entire sensory landscape of the areas she studied. Her writing is sophisticated yet maintains the diary-like personal intensity of a teenager. She is well on her way to becoming a fine ethnomusicologist. ~ Peggy Latkovich

CD available from cdRoots

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