Album Notes

Have you ever heard a melody you could not quite describe but that was so catchy it stayed with you for a long, long time? Memorias is a band formed in 2002 by four long-time experts of a lesser-known genre that beautifully combines unusual flutes and panpipes with acoustic strings that range from the common guitar to exotic marvels like the charango and the tiple. In an age where we are beset from all directions by prefab electro-music that all sounds the same, Memorias religiously commits to acoustic instruments, replacing factory-made effects with human skill and feeling. Just as Irish music preserved and carried ancient treasures through the dark ages while evolving along the way, so does the music of Memorias immortalize the very essence of pre-Columbian civilization in today's modern times.

Memorias de los Andes is one of those nearly extinct teams of musicians that keep a rare and precious musical tradition alive by finding the best possible arrangements for hallmark folkloric tunes and by composing beautiful new pieces firmly rooted in that same tradition. Memorias lovingly handcrafted this CD of dreamy instrumental tunes in the hauntingly rich Andean tradition of South America.

The music of the South-American Andes, with its rich variety of wind instruments, is one of the treasures of civilization, one which - unlike many other folkloric traditions - has survived to this very day. The pre-Columbian culture of the Andes has given it a haunting and wistful quality in which we hear the echo of one of the world's lost civilizations. Memorias keeps this acoustic tradition alive, and has on this CD compiled an "instrumental journey" from the past to the present. Memorias' members hail from four different countries (Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and Germany), and thus bring a variety of musical backgrounds to their work. Using original arrangements and compositions, their approach is to go beyond mere folkloric repetition - towards an evolution that both honors and retains the essence of the folkloric source. The result is a deeply moving and relaxing music that carries you, the listener, to far places in windswept mountains.