Soul of the Andes: Strings Flutes from Ecuador

Consisting of both Ecuadoran and Bolivian musicians, Inkhay uses this CD to focus on the traditional Andean music of three South American countries: Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. All of those countries have had vibrant pop scenes in the 1980s and 1990s; however, Inkhay (which takes its name from a Quechua word that means "to feed the fire") has bypassed contemporary South American pop in favor of an entirely traditional outlook. Although Soul of the Andes was recorded in New York and Newark, NJ, the music is exactly what you would hear from Indian populations in the higher elevations of the Andes. Listeners will hear a definite similarity between the traditional songs of Ecuador ("Fiesta Nativa," "Paloma Blanca," "El Inca Atahualpa"), Peru ("Rosaura," "Cancion Punena") and Bolivia ("Flor Del Campo"). All of the songs are all instrumental, and the instrumentation ranges from various flutes and pipes to string instruments and percussion. This is soulful, enriching music that has a lot of charm and a lot of heart.