The Squid's Ear Magazine


Nichunimu: Calados (577 Records)

At the forefront of Chile's experimental improv scene, the Nichunimu trio of Benjamin Vergara on trumpet, Nicolas Carrasco on synthesizer and Matias Mardones on percussion are both lyrical in a style that adheres to traditional jazz of a relaxed unrushed intention, but warped through unusual rhythmic approaches and odd punctuations from synthetics and radio.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Benjamin Vergara-trumpet

Nicolas Carrasco-synthesizer, radio

Matias Mardones-percussion


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UPC: 755491312797

Label: 577 Records
Catalog ID: 5947
Squidco Product Code: 35115

Format: CDR
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack - 3 panel
Recorded at Palo Quemado, in Santiago, on June 17th, 2023, by Nicolas Rios.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Prepare to enter an aural labyrinth when you press play on an upcoming second album from Chile's improvisational trio, Nichunimu - brought to you by independent label 577 Records. Led by adventurous trumpeter Benjamin Vergara, the group's new hit, Calados, is an intense and hypnotic collection. It features three glorious tracks, offering a mental escape that spans over an hour! Vergara has served as Artistic Director of the International Experimental Music Festival - Relincha (an annual delight in Valdivia) since 2014. He is also a professor at the School of Musical and Sonora Arts (Universidad Austral de Chile). As a trumpeter and educator, he focuses on improvising, written contemporary music, free jazz, and experimentation.

Nichunimu truly embodies the last 20 years of Chile's experimental scene. Their roots took shape in 2014 between Valdivia and Santiago, when Vergara joined Nicolas Carrasco on the synthesizer and Matias Mardones on percussion. Together, they infuse abstract krautrock music with their own savory flavors of avant-garde minimalism and ritualistic noise. Their brilliant sounds are forged from repetition, textures, friendship, and an emphasis on the circular shapes that unite them."-577 Records


Artist Biographies

"Benjamin Vergara: Trumpeter, improviser and educator, born in Santiago de Chile in 1982, based in the city of Valdivia, Chile.

His work focuses on improvised music, written contemporary music, free jazz and experimental music.

Director of Festival of experimental music -Relincha- occurring since 2014 in the city of Valdivia."

-Benjamin Vergara Website (https://www.benjaminvergara.com/bio)
1/17/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Nicolás Carrasco is a composer, sometimes improviser, who lives and works in Santiago de Chile. He is a member of Nichunimu, and has recorded in the trio Nicolás Carrasco / Nawito Morales / Benjamín Vergara.

- Website (https://linktr.ee/ncarrasco)
1/17/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Matias Mardones: "A percussive approach that moves between the mainstream jazz tradition and avant-garde experimentation characterize the work of this drummer, although it is not the only thing that represents him. Matías Mardones is also a composer of free contemporary music, which he has carried in parallel with his career as a musician on the jazz scene, which he definitively joined in the mid-2000s as a collaborator with the brothers Diego and Hugo Manuschevich and their cast. of musicians from the Núcleo de Resistencia Estética collective.

Mardones had initially played in avant-garde projects of a certain capital underground, such as the Mandali quintet and the LaKut group, but he soon consolidated himself in the free and experimental jazz environment playing in 2005 with Diego Manuschevich. In parallel, he adopted the pseudonym of Teo Naranjo in the Normaldis electronic contemporary music project, with the composer Sebastián Rehbein and the programmer Carlos Barros, who released the album Normaldis (2006).

Matías Mardones continued his route in jazz with a journey that was getting closer and closer to a mainstream, acting as a sideman for the pianist Carmen Aguilera, the double bassist Daniel Navarrete, or the singers Juan Pablo Rivera and Tania Pérez, and even He has recorded records of folk song figures such as Camila Moreno and Fernando Milagros. At the same time, in 2011 he joined the staff of musicians of the Animals en la Vía label, where he integrated a versatile rhythm section together with Belgian pianist Jasper Huysentruyt and double bassist Roberto Carlos Lecaros. With them, Mardones recorded albums by Bruno Riveros, Atma (2013), by Roberto Lecaros, 69 (2014), by Álvaro Zavala, Cholo (2014), by Sebastián Prado, Triofisis (2015) and by Roberto Carlos Lecaros himself, Puente (2015)."

-Musica Popular Chile (https://www.musicapopular.cl/artista/matias-mardones/)
1/17/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Aberraciones Y Milagros 28:25

2. Trazos 12:36

3. Lo Mismo En Distinto 21:31

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Mexico, Central & South Americas + Islands
Trio Recordings
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The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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