C H U Ñ O
Experimental World Music
NEXT SHOW : Sunday, November 5th, 6pm, BARBES, Brooklyn.
About the Album
Chuño, an innovative new album of Latin percussion and vocals, was released on April 16, 2018, by the New York based Argentinian duo Franco Pinna and Sofía Tosello. It may be purchased at the most popular download and streaming sites worldwide.
Chuño is genuinely one-of-a-kind, unlike anything the listener is likely to have heard before. At its heart is an original instrument, the arpa ligüera, that Pinna created four years ago in search of new sounds for his drum set. It is a percussion string instrument that uses the bombo ligüero, a traditional South American drum, as a resonating chamber, creating a sound reminiscent of both harp and drum, but with its own transcendent qualities. At the same time, he added a variety of world percussion instruments to his set. The new instrumentation led Pinna to explore a vast range of rhythmic and harmonic combinations, an authentically unique sound that was completed by the addition of a vocalist to provide the melodic line.
In Tosello, a noted singer of diverse South American, Caribbean, and jazz genres, he found the perfect collaborator. Argentinian artists based in New York, they already admired each other’s work. She jumped at the chance to create a distinct new sound with someone she regarded as a “master of rhythm.”
With the release of Chuño a larger audience will experience their unique achievement, which combines folkloric and popular musicality with an experimentalism more often associated with jazz. The album’s eleven tracks include two originals by Pinna, seven arrangements of traditional and popular songs from South America and the Caribbean, and even a version of Sting’s “Fragile.” The vocals interweave with rhythms of astonishing complexity, yet the result is one of elegance and simplicity. Chuño speaks to a common humanity, as though tapping the most fundamental sounds of existence.
The distinguished flutist Yulia Musayelyan is a guest artist on one track. Otherwise, all vocals are by Tosello with instrumentation and arrangement by Pinna, who also produced.
-John Osburn.
Chuño is an experimental music duo originated by two Argentinian, New York City-based musicians, percussionist Franco Pinna and singer Sofia Tosello.
Chuño blends the rhythms and melodies of South and Central America, using the “Arpa Legüera”, an instrument that evokes the sounds of a Charango, African Kora, and Asian Koto. Arpa Legüera was invented and crafted by Franco P. in 2013.
Franco’s setting includes drum set, percussion from around the world alongside the Arpa. On the other hand Sofia Tosello brings the warmth, the storytelling and the passionate interpretation of the lyrics.