Adriane Pontecorvo

Cumbión Planetario Soundway The term tropicanibalismo has been circulating within experimental music scenes in Colombia since at least the early 2000s, broadly encompassing new and innovative approaches to coastal popular and folkloric music forms. Cumbión Planetario is Bogotá-based duo Rizomagic’s newest contribution to this tropicanibalismo landscape.

At the beginning of her new live album Let X=X, recorded with the accompaniment of unconventional jazz ensemble Sexmob, avant-garde icon Laurie Anderson introduces herself as our guide for the night. “This is your captain / We are going down / We are all going down / Together,” she says, her voice as authoritative as it has ever been, even in this era of catastrophe. Her presence soothes immediately, but Laurie Anderson is not here to be a savior, as she makes clear throughout her performance.

HOPE!! Parlophone / Warner Music Joy radiates from every aspect of legendary Beninoise performer Angélique Kidjo’s newest release. It is, firstly, visible on the cover, on which a luminous Kidjo grins, eyes shut in serenity and hands clenched beside her face in an expression of anticipation. Wrapped around her silhouette are her name and the album’s title, stylized in bright, bold capital letters: HOPE!! Even more vivid are the sonic interpretations of happiness that fill the album.