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Back in May, Mexico’s most active volcano began spewing gas and ash for more than a week.
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The eruptions from Popocatépetl, a 5,425-metre mountain just outside of Mexico City known as El Popo to the locals, drew worldwide attention and sparked fears that mass evacuations may be imminent. It has been erupting occasionally since 1994. But this seemed a more steady display of power.
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Thankfully, the alert level was lowered by June.But the rumblings came just as the band BuenRostro, who come from the southern edge of Mexico City, was promoting a new single that happened to be called Volcano. The song, which features Toronto singer Julian Taylor and was written by BuenRostro guitarist Arturo Barcenas, begins as a sultry, slow-burning number that builds to a fiery, rhythmic climax. According to a press release, it was inspired by the “power of nature” and was meant to symbolically remind listeners that its “a phenomenon worthy of admiration, respect and perhaps fear. Humans currently sleep like an inactive volcano, automatons, drowsy, absorbed by routine, accumulating energy, dreams and desires. . . .We have the power to wake up and rise again between lava and rocks, towards a different tomorrow, together in the re-evolution.”
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“It’s interesting that the release was close to that natural incident,” says vocalist Lupita BuenRostro, in an interview with Postmedia from Edmonton, where the band was taking a short break from while on its first Canadian tour. Volcano will be part of an upcoming album, named TIERRA that will have a distinct theme “of seeing the earth from different point of views,” Lupita says. The roar of El Popo, which holds deep spiritual meaning for the Nahuatl speakers of Mexico, seemed significant and symbolic in its timing, Lupita says.
“I like to translate that as the earth is claiming its place,” she says. “Nature is great . . . and angry.”
Formed in 2010, BuenRostro comes from the southern end of Mexico city in the borough of Milpa Alta, where they soaked up the traditions and culture preserved by Nahuatl-speaking elders. Nahuatl is the language of the Aztecs or Mexica.
The musicians, who play accordion, guitar, bass, drums and Latin percussion, were also inspired by life in the city and the bubbling cauldron of sounds that can come large urban areas. The resulting sounds mixes traditional Mexican folk and dance music from rural areas with sambas and strains of jazz and rock music. Bassist and musical director Eluterio BuenRostro once played in Mexican grunge bands. Barcenas, while the youngest member of the collective, grew up listening to classic rock such as Jimi Hendrix and Santana. Lupita has formal training in opera and theatre.
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“We love tradition and we respect it and we like to learn about it,” she says. “But we are part of the whole world. We also like rock (music) and going to parties. We are part of that fusion. We are part of both worlds. In the city and in the town and surrounded by nature and mountains and like to explore that kind of stuff. ”
BuenRostro’s first tour of Canada has included stops in Toronto, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Folk On the Rocks in Yellowknife and are scheduled to Fort MacLeod’s South Country Fair on Saturday. The act also has a show at the Calgary Folk Music Festival on Thursday, July 27 before heading to the Hillside Festival in Guelph, Ont.
Their first album, Alterlatino, was released in 2015, followed by 2020’s VIVO, which was recorded live from the Julia Carrillo concert hall.
Performances are a mix of dance and music and are a feast for the eyes as well as the ears. The act is known for wearing face-paint and elaborately coloured costumes, custom-designed for BuenRostro and usually made of recycled material donated to the act from friends and fans. The Calgary Folk Music Festival website intriguingly describes the performance as “mysterious characters in wild costumes float through the crowd before appearing on stage.”
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“We describes ourselves as (visual) artists, not only musicians,” Lupita says. “All of us have theatre (backgrounds.) I studied theatre, I’m an actress also. So, yes, the theatrical part is very important to us.”
Given the intricate global rhythms the BuenRostro employs, it’s not surprising that they tend to get audiences on their feet. Dance has always been an integral part of the act and it tends to contagious when they are performing, particularly in places like Prince’s Island Park where the Calgary folk fest is held. As is tradition in Calgary, BuenRostro has been teamed with an eclectic array of temporary collaborators for workshops on Friday and Saturday, including Prince Edward Island Celtric-folk instrumentalists Inn Echo, indie-pop singer-songwriter Rich Aucoin, rising Oji-Cree singer-songwriter Aysanabee, powerhouse Mohawk singer Shawnee Kish and American blues-folk songwriter Buffalo Nichols.
“Music is made to dance,” Lupita says. “We love to dance, also. Not only theatre, but also dance is present and not only Mexican traditional dance. We are fusion but we cannot stop the movement. We think it’s a natural thing. Music, not matter what kind of music, makes humans, and even animals, move.”
Which is why language has never been a barrier.
“We don’t need to speak the same language,” Lupita says. “The audience understands what is going on.”
BuenRostro plays the National @ Twilight Stage of the Calgary International Music Festival on Thursday, July 27 at 6:55 p.m. and in various world shops on Friday and Saturday. Visit calgaryfolkfest.com.
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