Sounds and Colours publish their third Latin America country guidebook.
The people behind the online magazine Sounds & Colours have published their third impressive guidebook on Latin American culture. Their first two releases were detailed forays into the threads of contemporary art and music in Brazil and Colombia. This third book focuses on Peru, and the editors have sourced a series of independent essays from an eclectic array of individuals whose knowledge about their particular topic is conveyed in a well-designed and accessible book.
An inescapable difficulty with writing about music is how words alone fail to capture the sensory reaction and stimulation of simply listening to the music itself. Fortunately the editors have circumnavigated this potential shortcoming by compiling a CD of Peruvian sounds. As if to make a vivid point, the CD opens with two punchy rock tunes, and goes on to highlight the diversity of modern Peruvian music, from tropical bass to psychedelic folk.
The eye-catching cover artwork by Mara Mantari Ramos that adorns this 200-page tome pulls the reader in from the outset. Inside, the information-rich and at times dense chapters cover diverse areas from Afro-Peruvian culture to the life and dreams of the poet Enrique Verástegui. The text is interspersed with illustrations and photography that eschew the clichés of a Lonely Planet style touristic outlook. The photos of Carlo Rodrigo Rojas bring to life rural celebrations in the small town of Huaylas while the humanistic photography of Paccarik Orue tells the urban story of the Andean city of Cerro de Pasco, where folkloric and cultural traditions are threatened by the expansion of the mining operations which sustain the city.
A surrealist highlight is the chapter on music and ayahuasca by the French filmmaker Vincent Moon, an avid documenter of traditional and present day musical styles. His time spent in the Amazon has been captured in the short film Sonidos del Perú: Justina, which is included as a DVD.
For anyone that thinks that Peru is mainly about Machu Picchu, llamas and poncho adorned, Sounds and Colours Perú shows another side to the country. Home to a vibrant scene of electro, beat poetry and political documentary, this is an indispensable guide to the modern nation.
Sounds and Colours Perú
Various authors (Sounds and Colours, 2015)
This article was originally published in Alborada magazine issue two (Winter 2015)
