Our panel is titled Solar Power : Using Technology to Connect Music and Nature

We are honoured to have this opportunity to expose our work at WOMEX. An envet that brings together the most important producers of such a powerful force that is World Music and aid in our search for allies in our efforts to use technology to connect the power of music to the power of the Earth.

Here is a link to the panel on the official WOMEX website

https://www.womex.com/virtual/piranha_arts_1/event/solar_power_using_to

At the 8th edition of this all day mountain solar dance picnic, we opened our first window to the world with the launch of our Wapapura Live satellite stream.

We invite you to watch the DJ sessions broadcast from the hills above Granada where we danced to the global bass sounds facing the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada and the Alhambra palace.

Wapapura Live is now Alive….

Bigote

Rafael Aragon

Ion Din Anina

Like we have been doing for the last 7 years, we will be continuing to use the power of the sun to share musical frequencies with beautiful places on this earth.  But now we will be sending these frequencies into the sky to a satellite that will share these messages to the whole world.  Inviting everyone to connect with our events that will be broadcast on line here on our website.

The first event takes place here at our home base, Granada, on the 1st of May.

Tune in and spread the word, Wapapura is going live!

Hombre de Barro, Copoazú

Currently available only here on our website.

This album was recorded in the Amazon rainforest in collaboration with the non-profit, Fundación Raices Vivas (living roots).

This is the first album of Hombre de Barro, which is made up of three very well known Colombian musicians: Urian Sarmiento, Teto Ocampo, Juan Manuel Toro.

It was quite an adventure making these recordings in such an intense natural environment as the jungles of the Amazon river.  Watch the video that accompanies the album to see the types of places we set up our solar studios.

A musical journey into largest and most wild rainforest on Earth.

http://www.wapapura.com/recording/hombre-de-barro-copoazu/

The artistic line up is in perfect harmony with the power of this important event.

The line up is Conector, Richard Blair and Javiro.

Conector is a project by Hector Buitrago, one of the leaders of the historic Colombian band, Aterciopelados.  Conector and Hector are the perfect musical match for this event as he is the most active musical environmentalist in Colombia with this musical project and Canto al Agua.  Both using music to help us towards a more healthier relationship with our natural planet.  www.conhector.com

Richard Blair is one of the most influential DJs and Producers of the last 20 years in Colombia.  He started working here with Toto la Momposina, but moved on to create the musical project, Sidestepper.  Most musicians you talk to here grant this band the status as being the headlight of the current trend in Colombian music to dig deep into traditional styles and make them alive in the current moment.  Inspiring bands like Choquib Town, Systema Solar, Pernett, Mucho Indio, just to name a few.  Richard has been an oracle for us on this journey.  We are very honored to have him present on this special day to grace us with his mix of smooth tropicalia. www.facebook.com/Sidesteppermusic/info

Javiro is Javiro!  The director and guiding force behind Moving Energy, having taken his solar powered cumbia sessions all around Andalucia in 2012. www.facebook.com/movingenergy

And all this to take place at the amazing enormous Botanical Gardens of Bogotá and in partnership with Clean Energy Colombia that is installing renewable energy systems in rural villages for the use in community projects.

It is going to be one fine day of music in a green urban oasis so help us and pray for sun and come on over if you are in Bogotá.

We have spent the first week getting acclimated and doing production homework.  Making our first contacts with the musicians we will be recording and traveling with.  Urian Sarmiento, Richard Blair, Teto Ocampo, Hector Buitrago.  Along with our other allies in making this happen, Javier Mutis, Floresmiro Rodriguez, Diana de la Vega.

So, its real, its happening, Wapapura has made it to Colombia.  May the travel spirits keep the wind in our sails and guide our way.

We will keep you posted on what is being cooked up here in this land of bubbling natural and cultural energies.

On the 4th of January three flights will arrive in Bogotá and be carrying the following people that make up the crew of this musical journey:

Ivan Moreno Romero: Sound engineer, Director of La Casa Estudio, Second in command of Wapapura, been with us since the very beginning and behind the faders for all of our recordings and CDs.  Is coming down directly from Mexico where he has spent the last month recording Alvaro Corcuero´s CD and working as sound engineer for the great Jorge Pardo.  We hope all this time in Mexico has him ready for whats next when he lands in Bogotá!  Time to get out the new hiking boots!
www.lacasaestudio.com

Allen Myers:  First Camera, Traveller, Photographer, Filmmaker, Director of Nomadsight. We are excited to add Allen to our Wapapura family and have him along to film all that passes before us.  He has been travelling the world for the last 6 years and presenting photo exhibits in public spaces along the way.
His presence is sure to not only capture our travels on film, but also add an exciting element to the mix.  He has just received funding from Sierra Nevada Brewery and we are proud to have the support of one of the best west coast beers.
www.nomadsight.com

Javi Rodriguez Ortigosa:  Second Camera, Web management, DJ, Director of Moving Energy Sound Events.  Javi is the invisible force behind all the web work that has gone into this project.  This last year he has taken on Wapapura´s newest project, Moving Energy.  He has traveled around Andalucia this last year with the Solar DJ Van, putting on solar powered music events, making people dance with the power of the Sun.
http://www.facebook.com/movingenergy

Rafael Kotcherha Campora: Director, Expedtion Design. About to leave the Inn in Granada, El Numero 8, to head out and take this dream to the next level.  In Colombia last year, it became clear that this was the place where Wapapura needed to take the next leap.  To jump over the ocean and work with the amazing musicians there and support the projects trying to protect the incredible biodiversity of this country that is currently under seige during this crucial time of transition.  As he puts it, “its time to take this horse over the cliff to see if it really is a unicorn”

This is the team at the controls of this ship.  Soon we will reveal where we will be heading and with whom we will be traveling….

The World is an international daily news magazine done in colaboration with the BBC.  It is broadcast on Public Radio radio stations throughout the United States.

www.theworld.org

Here is the piece:

The line up was:

• Jean Christophe Bonnafous (France) Bansuri Flute, Vocals
• Indré Jurgeleviciuté (Lithuania) Kanklés, Vocals, Tampura
• Bert Cools (Belgium) Guitars and effects
• Miguel Hiroshi (Spain) Cajón, Ghatam, Kalimba, Varied Percussion
• Marcello Windolph (Germany, Brazil) Acoustic Bass, Vocals

The benefits from these recordings will go to our continued support for the reforestation around the Junglewood arts center in the Panamanian highland rainforests.

These recordings will be available this coming autumn, 2012.

We hope to keep representing an environmental focus in the World Music scene and connect with allies doing similar work in other parts of the world.  If there is any place in the world where you can do this, it is at WOMEX.

If you are not familiar with WOMEX, have a look at their website.  www.womex.com

It is the annual gathering of World Music presenters, promoters, media professionals, festivals, labels, etc.

Please get in touch if you are attending and would like to meet up to discuss possible collaborations.

Resnatur is a network of private ecological reserves around Colombia.  Individuals dedicating their farms to sustainable ecological initiatives or simply just allowing the land to heal and be.  Colombia is at present under attack from international mining and logging companies taking advantage of the recent political stability in most areas of the country.  Being one of the most bio-diverse places on earth these companies are coming in and extracting the natural resources and leaving trails of ecological destruction in their path.

Wapapura will be traveling with its portable solar powered recording unit and uniting with a group of musicians from the capital, Bogota.  We will be traveling to various locations of great ecological importance to offer music to the Earth.  We will then be making an album with these recording to help projects holding off this wave of natural destruction taking place.

We will be starting a kickstarter campaign soon looking for support to fund this project.  Please stay tuned and lend a hand if you can.