VA - Invenciones: La Otra Vanguardia Musical En Latinoamérica 1976-1988 (2017)

A comprehensive compilation, the first of its kind, of the avant-garde and experimental music scene of Latin America from 1976 to the late 1980s. Featuring pioneering artists from Peru (Miguel Flores, Manongo Mujica), Ecuador (Amauta), Mexico (Decibel, Vía Láctea, Jorge Reyes), Venezuela (Musikautomatika, Miguel Noya), Costa Rica (Autoperro), Argentina (Quum), Uruguay (Carlos da Silveira), Brazil (Grupo Um), Chile (Malalche) and Colombia (Banda Dispersa de la Madre Selva).

Includes booklet with liner notes by Luis Alvarado and artist photos. The artists on this compilation come from an intermediate period between the highpoint of diverse artistic currents influenced by the hippie movement and the advent of punk. A watershed between the expansion of the industry and the emergence of a new DIY distribution system. They also belong to an intermediate period in terms of the development of electroacoustic music labs and the arrival of synthesizers and samples available for mass audiences. They hail from that decisive stage of technological socialisation, when small studios and home recording studios were set up.

Above all, what these artists have in common is that they are Latin Americans and as such share the difficulties of belonging to a time in history when ideological polarisation resulting from the Cold War was rife, when they would witness complex social processes, military coups, dictatorships, radicalisation and when the legitimacy of music that spoke about the territory was also disputed. It was a time when native sounds were introduced, either linked to the use of poor or austere technologies or to the local context. Many of the artists on this record have acquired cult status and are key figures as regards understanding the cultural periods they belong to in their respective countries, but as such they have also been atypical figures and reflect a sensibility that was spreading across Latin America back then: a spirit of experimentation that was redefining the directions taken by music in the region.

More than a movement, it was a group of individuals who worked on counterculture projects. Notwithstanding this mosaic of different sounds, we can identify several trends: free use of folk, open compositions, explorations of the boundaries of rock and experimentation with technology. However, imagination is perhaps what connects more closely all the artists brought together here for the first time. Because all of them needed to imagine a new space, where they could forge a new scene that punk and technology would go on to consolidate.

All these artists did things for the first time, they represent the breaking point between clearly defined periods, despite the difficulties and isolation that many suffered when creating their compositions. Now we can listen to them on this compilation which allows us to imagine a time in the past when this other avant-garde music scene exploded.