Inkuyo – Music of the Andes – Art From Sacred Landscapes

Imagine the haunting sounds of the wind blowing through the altiplano, the highlands of the Andes Mountains, and you will hear the sounds the ancient Incas tried to create in their music. The call of the pan–pipes echoing each other, the plaintive cries of the wooden bass flutes—these sounds evoked, and still evoke, the windswept, unchanging highlands of South America. Inkuyo, the American–based ensemble devoted to ancient and contemporary Andean music, uses dozens of traditional flutes, whistles, and pipes, as well as traditional percussion and strings, to capture the spirit of Andean music.

Art from Sacred Landscapes, like Inkuyo’s last recording, The Double–Headed Serpent (13070), combines traditional Andean works with new compositions, all drawn from Incan tales and places. Most are instrumental featuring the sounds of the sikus (pan–pipes), the quena and antara (flutes), the charango (armadillo–shelled mandolin), and guitar. There are also two songs sung in Quechua, the language of the Incas which has never completely disappeared from the remote Andean heights.

While Andean music has become increasingly popular on the international scene, there are few ensembles that can match Inkuyo’s expertise, research, and range of music. From the solemn, majestic sounds of the Kantu (an Inca processional march), to the festive Ajawasi (a kind of Andean tavern that serves corn liquor), Inkuyo presents a broad spectrum of moods and styles. All bear the timeless sound that characterizes Andean music—though not all are 500 years old. Many are new works written in the Andean tradition by Inkuyo’s Gonzalo Vargas or Daniel Zamalloa. This is music that still contains echoes of the past and of the winds and mountains that inspired it.