Banda Conmoción are a Chilean ensemble band who mix cumbia and gypsy music with genres such as ska and cha-cha-cha. They are part of the new Latin-American fusion movement and emerged in the early nineties along with groups like Chico Trujillo and La Floripondio. They are also considered part of the New Chilean Cumbia movement.

Early years

The band's first incarnation was as part of a theater troupe called Mendicantes in 1997. Four years later, in 2001, they established themselves as a separate band, though they continued to collaborate with the theater group until 2005.

From 2005 onwards, they cut ties with Mendicantes and began to perform alone. Their performances were never on conventional stages: they performed in public spaces such as plazas, street corners, weddings or parties. As they became better known, the started to take on bigger stages such as the Galpon Victor Jara (Victor Jara "Warehouse"), a magnet for independent musicians in Santiago's Barrio Brasil neighborhood. Their repertoire has included genres as diverse as cumbia, Andean music, ska, cha cha cha, porro, waltz, bolero, and gypsy music, among others, which combine to produce a unique sound.

Albums

In 2008, Banda Conmoción released their first album, Pregonero, an early Latin American and Spanish name for a town crier. Pregonero pulled together all the original tracks created by the band in the seven years since their formation in 2001.

The ensemble performing Pregonero includes woodwind, four trumpets, two saxes, clarinet, trombone, tuba, bombo, drums and cymbals. According to Chilean national newspaper El Mercurio, "it's a true commotion: everything is battered and blown. Nothing is plugged in. And nothing is sung [except] con este cha cha chá or suavecito, mami".

The band's second album, Cuerpo Repartido ("shared" or "divided" body) was released in 2010. The title refers to Túpac Katari, a Bolivian leader in the indigenous rebellion against the Spanish Empire in the early 1780s, who was executed and quartered as a warning to other rebels.

Cuerpo Repartido introduced new sounds to the band's repertoire, drawn from international tours to Spain, France, Germany and Shanghai and including new melodies, piano and references to Violeta Parra. El Mercurio described one track, Maldigo del Alto Cielo, as "Violeta Parra multiplied by carnival."

Banda Conmoción are part of the line-up for the third edition of Lollapalooza Chile, taking place in Santiago in April 2013.

Members

Discography