Album Notes

Critics and fans are enraptured by Irene Farrera's deep, dusky voice. It is a voice that has been compared to fine chocolate; full of spice and flavor, inspiring passionate declarations. ÒAt one moment shy and tender, caressing the lyrics as if they were children, in another she wraps an ethereal fist around poetry that cuts like a knife.Ó (Chiori Santiago - SF Bay Area Music Critic) "Walking in the Jungle" is Farrera's first CD and has been re-released this year at the request of her fans. The disk features 8 original Farrera tunes. Irene's trademark sultry vocals and the lush arrangements take listeners on a musical journey through the tropical jungle and beyond. Music was Irene Farerra's first language. Her earliest memories of Venezuela are full of song and dancing feet."Music is part of every celebration and social occasion," says the U.S.-based vocalist. By the time she was six she could sing dozens of aguinaldos, or holiday songs. She loved the rhythm of Venezuela's gaita music, too, so much that she insisted on organizing her brother and three sisters into a band to perform for the family. Impressed by their fervor, their father bought a drum for the brother, maracas for the sisters, and presented Irene with a cuatro, a Venezuelan four-stringed guitar. The instrument became her constant companion. Farrera's siblings indulged her every Christmas season by crooning the choruses to the aguinaldos that quickly became a family tradition. By the time she was a teenager, Farrera was lead singer and the family band was playing paid gigs at holiday parties."They were having fun, but I was serious," she recalls. "I was certain that this is what I needed to do. Something in me could not separate from the music." Initially coming to the US to study architecture, Farrera was drawn back to her musical roots and quickly established herself as a regional favorite in the Pacific Northwest. Critics lauded her first three albums, Soy De Ti (Indigena Records, 1999), Alma Latina (Redwood Records, 1995) and Walking in the Jungle (Same Sea Music, 1993). Many compare her deep, sultry voice to South American divas Mercedes Sosa and Soledad Bravo and to contemporary singers like the husky Joan Armatrading and the slinky Sade. In January, 2001 Farrera returned to her hometown of Valencia, Venezuela to record her fourth CD with an outstanding 7-piece ensemble under the musical direction of master guitarist, composer and arranger, Aquiles Baez. The group includes members of Venezuela's foremost interpreters of instrumental music, Ensamble Gurrufio and Afro-Venezuelan percussionist Alexander Livinalli among others. The recording (due for a Spring 2002 release) features traditional instrumentation: cuatro, maracas, fulia and gaita drums, violin, acoustic guitar and bass. The repertoire includes contemporary arrangements of Venezuelan composers Simon Diaz and Maria Luisa Escobar as well as Farrera's original compositions.