sonora3
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sonora3

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"sonora3"

Reviews, (Rollingstone, south America)
Translation to English: (scan of the original magazine included)
Rollingstone, April 2008
Dare to put together Luciano Berios’ , Frank Zappas’ music and some punk. To this combination add some free jazz, “Cumbia” (Colombian Rhythm) a lot of “Vallenato” (Colombian music style) and an unending speech. Put all this in a recording session done by a Chilean and two Danish. The result will be of course, an odd recording which it's leader, with a clear confusing gesture has classified as alternative southamerican pop. For some people this recording is just the result of an out of tune singer with intellectual high class airs. For others it is perhaps a cool genius not worried about record sales at all. Opinions here and there, Sonora3, the new project of the Bogotan guitarist Eblis Álvarez is a challenge, because listening to it, expose the listener to get rid of all its prejudices, in other words, if the listener lacks a good sense of humor, this recording will go directly into the trash. After “El Advenimiento del Castillo mujer” , dislocated solo work of an imaginary band called Meridian Brothers, Álvarez comes back to Colombia to re-discover a jealously kept repertory for the ears of those, whom, for a long time, have been tired of the monotonous radio sounds. Pay attention to this Bogotan, who is performing this year as arranger and guitarist of the Danish singer Jomi Massage playing at the Roskilde Festival 2008, festival in which bands like slayer, Band of Horses, Radiohead, Cat Power, Golfrapp, are also taking part.
Translation, Eblis Álvarez
- rollingstone colombia


"Sonora3/Meridian brothers"

Denmark. Colombia.
This album is the result of a project which deserves attention.
It is unusual in a hurried music business to experience that much integrity and uncompromisness
in the approach of music as in this cooperation. Unusual in any case, but even more, when you think
of that the one half - Sonora3 - consist of danish (edit: and Chilean) musicians - while the other
half is Colombian.
The ambitions reach to what you normally would see with musicians with much more experience and technical
abilities like for example the French jazzclarinetist, Louis Sclavis or his Italian collegue Gianluigi Trovesi.
The music is difficult to categorize, but is more than improvisations in what the band itself calls
"an electro-acoustic garagelike soundscape in a surreal urban enviroment".
The vocals are deliberately twisted, dragging and staccato with a pinch of Captain Beefheart, though
without any vibrato at all. The accompagnement is subtle, seeking and maybe with a bit of the
previously mentioned gentleman's devilish restless and delightfull sound of the Mediterenean.
A strange coctail, and in some numbers you can even almost hear our own Else Marie Padde sitting
turning the buttons on her radio devices back in the 1950's.
Even though the album is both brave and original, one could have wished for a production almost as
delightfully bizar as the expression of the music, especially the clarinet some times sounds detached.
It would have been interesting to hear what a bigger production could add to the finish.
Having said that, the band fully succeeds with an extraordinary vision and vibe.
The music is definetely not mainstream, but grows with subtlety and powerfulness by each
time you listen to the album.
The group deserves great praise for moving borders with a project entirely their own.

Rated: 4/5 stars. - Cultures, Denmark. November-December 2008


Discography

Radiador (2005)
Sonora3/Meridian Brothers 2008 (La distritofónica)
www.myspace.com/sonora3

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Bio

Sonora3 is a very peculiar group; It’s formed by a very different type of musicians, from different countries like Colombia, Chile and Denmark. This group has been in the north-european music scene since 2002. The group has played in different Festivals (Copenhaguen Jazz festival, Global Music Festival, Vestebro festival among others) ,toured in the Nordic music scene, and developed several influences of the south-American hidden-unknown music, like the Colombian “cumbia” or the carnival rhythms from the north of Chile. The group has developed a unique style integrating the languages of the common rock music combining it with sharp rhythm patterns and counterpointed textures and Spanish texts. The group was formed by the Danish bassist Martin Krogh, the Colombian composer Eblis Álvarez, the Danish Clarinetist Tine Vitkov, and the Chilean percussionist Paulo Villegas in the year 2002 to explore this interesting form of making music. Most of the musical language and compositions are bourne by the computer interactivity with the musicians. All the programming developing is done by the composer Eblis Álvarez, a Colombian who came to study in Copenhagen at the Royal Academy of music in the soloist composition class. There he met bass player Martin Krogh, and Chilean percussionist Paulo Villegas who already lived in the city. After one year of hard work the group asked the clarinetist Tine Vitkov, who is graduated from the Rhythmic Music Conservatorium in Copenhagen, to join the group. At this point the four musicians came with their first recording “Radiator(2005)” which anticipates the musical idiom to come of the band. The band continued exploring the possibilities of the electronics and developed a more sofisticated musical language in every maner.
The culmination of their work so far is their latest recording "Sonora3/Meridian Brothers" released in 2008
The album is sponsored by the "Dansk Musiker Forbund" (Danish Musicians Union) and is signed by the Colombian music collective/Record Label
“La Distritofónica”.
Currently the band tour every summer in different concert places in Denmark and Scandinavia since Eblis Álvarez, its singer and front man is working also developing different projects in his native country Colombia. Sonora3 is planning to record its second album in 2010, and it´s also planning a southamerican tour the same year.