Press release
Presented in eight distinctive tracks, Bulla en el Barrio‘s new album explores and celebrates the fierceness of drums and the complexity surrounding their varied styles, especially in the music stemming from across the Caribbean coast of Colombia. “Not only bullerengues, but also tamboritos panamanians, solomas – like Panamanian styles – also I’ve been listening to salve, which is a rhythm from the Dominican Republic,” explains artist Carolina Oliveros who forms part of Bulla en el Barrio, a music project based in New York.
“During the pandemic, I was hearing drums all the time […] I’ve been studying all that stuff, so that’s why my songs sound kind of different. I don’t sound traditional. I always want to try to create a bullerengue that sounds more traditional but also sounds like me with my own influences.”
About Bulla En El Barrio
Since 2015, Bulla en el Barrio has been envisioned as a collective and a study group of the traditional
rueda de bullerengue – dance music originating from the Caribbean coast of Colombia that transmits
ancient African rhythms and knowledge. The group’s main focus and mission is to recreate the
participative energy and vibes of la rueda, the circle. It’s a concept that allows people with no prior
musical experience to clap, sing, dance, socialize, and celebrate life in an open space.
Oliveros and Bulla co-founder Camilo Rodriguez – both in NY tropical futurism band Combo Chimbita – first experimented with writing their own bullerengue during their monthly residencies at Barbès in Brooklyn, culminating in Rueda de Bullerengue, two singles released by Names You Can Trust in 2017. Thanks to these recordings, these two Bulla en el Barrio compositions are now sung in music festivals
and ruedas all over Bullerengue territory.
With time, Bulla became a talent hotbed and has since performed at MoMA PS1, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Flushing Town Hall, Queens Museum, Afro-Latino Festival, Mi Gente! Festival, Indiana University, Wepa Festival (Austin, TX), the Kennedy Center in DC, and more.
Bulla en el Barrio’s new songs have since made it into the bullerengue repertoire, not only in Colombia
but in London, Mexico, Chile, and Panama. “They were already singing ‘Colombia sin Panama’ in
festivals, and we hadn’t even recorded it,” says Rodriguez. “They just heard Carolina singing it in a video
and then the group Tonada – I wrote that song and I’m not even from that region so it’s been really
crazy.”
Bulla now presents eight original songs recorded live, preserving and documenting the participative and
rough vibes of the ruedas and live performances. “We’ve been playing together since 2015,” says
Rodriguez. “The group is a space to study, connect, to learn, so this record captures a moment where we
were – taking a picture of a process. This was just what was happening at that time. It was a way to
document what we were doing and our process learning, documenting bullerengue.”
“It was important for me to think about what I feel doing bullerengue here in the city, far from where I’m
from,” describes Oliveros, who grew up on the Caribbean coast in Barranquilla. “I’ve been sharing spaces
with Cuban musicians, drums from Cuba, and other cities – and my way to compose bullerengue now is
different because my mind and vision about drums is different from ten years ago. I feel that we have a
connection with those places. We are the same family.”
“In bullerengue, we don’t talk about spirituality or the relationship we have with our ancestors. Not in a specific or direct way – though maybe you can feel that energy. When you hear the drums, you hear a lot of things around you, and that feeling, that energy makes you happy. You can feel so many things when you are in a drum circle. So I’m just starting to compose – I say ‘spiritual songs,’ but in bullerengue.”
Released by Figure & Ground x Sonorama
