A Sound Journey to Amazonia

The CCCB becomes a meeting point to celebrate the musical, ecological and social diversity of Amazonia with two artistic proposals. In the course of the evening, we’ll dance to the rhythm of Peru’s jungle cumbia and tecnobrega, with electronic beats and urban rhythms that bring together tradition and today’s technology. We’ll also get carried away by a sound experience that submerges us in the sounds of seven ecosystems that today, more than ever, need to be heard and protected.

Programme

21:00 and 23:10. Sound Landscapes that Have to Last with Nahun Saldaña

The jungle is a living organism, a constant symphony in which birds, insects, rivers and animals construct sound landscapes. But the sound of this ancestral concert is fading. Deforestation, climate crisis and human expansion are silencing voices that we should never stop hearing.

Using sounds that are recorded and recreated with voices, instruments and synthesizers, sound artist and researcher Nahun Saldaña invites us to reconnect with seven landscapes that we can still protect. We’ll take in the Lagoa Azul, where water is contested between mining and farming; Hierba Buena, home to the yellow-tailed woolly monkey, and the Santa Elena Refuge, a tropical wetland in the middle of the city. We’ll listen to the calls of insects in Ubusillo, the drumming of rain at the entrance to a cave on the river Abiseo, the deep cries of a howler monkey in Pacaya-Samiria and the sound of dancing in the Waiku indigenous community’s district. This is an invitation to listen, feel and remember that we are still in time to preserve them.

21:40 and 23:50. Rhythms of Amazonia with Natalia Figueredo

A feast of sights and sounds that will transport us to multiple Amazon territories. Researcher and architect Natalia Figueredo, from Belém do Pará, a city at the mouth of the river Amazon, invites us with this DJ session to dance to music ranging from Peruvian jungle cumbia to tecnobrega. We’ll explore sound landscapes that connect with the technological contemporaneity of the aparelhagens, the powerful sound systems popular in Amazon urban centres.

The musical offering is completed by the visuals of Altar Sonoro, an audiovisual initiative that represents the richness of everyday life in the north of Brazil, celebrating its natural, cultural and social force. We’ll be drawn into the fusion between tradition and modernity, between jungle and city, on a sound journey that celebrates the diversity and creative power of the various Amazonian territories.

Night of Museums is the lead-up to International Museums Day, which is celebrated on 18 May. The city’s cultural institutions open their doors free of charge and offer a special programme for all publics.