music to my ears

Tonight Sal and I attended a fabulous concert! The group performing was Andes Manta, four brothers from Ecuador who play a wide variety of handmade instruments (35 different ones, actually!).


It was amazing how so much beautiful sound could be generated by simple bamboo instruments. The songs were mesmerizing, I felt as if I was attending a festival in Ecuador or something. Take a moment and listen to an audio clip of El Yamor, a song typically played during a festival by the same name in the northern Andes. My favorite piece of the evening was a song called Causai Pacha, which incorporated sounds of the Amazonian rain forest within the music.....you could hear frogs croaking, wind whistling, rain falling, birds chirping.....and all of the sounds were created using the native instruments, it was incredible!

It was a perfect evening since the concert was held at an outdoor amphitheater, and not a drop of rain even though it was in the forecast for this evening. Wonderful music under the stars!