On 20 November, Universal Music will release ‘Rhythms Del Mundo‘, an exciting collaborative album, which fuses the hot Afro-Cuban sounds of The Buena Vista Social Club Musicians” with tracks from some of the buzziest bands, including The Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay, The Kaiser Chiefs, Jack Johnson and many others.
It also features the amazing vocals from famed Cuban vocalists, Omara Portuonda, and the last ever recording of the much beloved Ibrahim Ferrer. The album is in aid of Artists Project Earth (APE), which lends support for natural disaster relief and climate change awareness.
Rhythms Del Mundo is an electrifying album that fuses music of different cultures and comes up with a melting pot of rare sounds. Arranged by Demetrio Muniz, Miguel Patterson and Kenito, the main recording sessions took place in Havana at Abdala Studios from the April 2005 to June 2006.
While the majority of the vocals remain the same, The Buena Vista Social Club musicians took the original orchestration from each song and created something utterly unique casting their trademark mastery over each track. Their noted and exceptional musicianship seduced even the notoriously protective Arctic Monkeys into handing over their track. As a rule, the band has never licensed their music for compilation albums, but were so enamoured with the result that they were happy for it to be included on the album. As well as The Arctic Monkeys’ track ‘Dancing Shoes’, Rhythms Del Mundo included reworked tracks such as Clocks by Coldplay, Better Together by Jack Johnson, She Will be Loved by Maroon 5, High and Dry by Radiohead and others.
Rhythms Del Mundo also includes music by famed Cuban singers Omara Portuondo and the last vocal recording of Afro-Cuban bolero singer, Ibrahim Ferrer, who died tragically in 2005. The other Cuban musicians from The Buena Vista Social Club who perform on this album are as follows: Barbarito Torres, Amandito Valdes, Virgilio Valdes, Angel Terri Domech, Manuel ‘Guajiro’ Mirabal, Orlando Lopez ‘Cachaito’ and Demetrio Muniz.
“We need a law, we need to have the Government put climate change in its’ place. If you leave industry to sort it out on a voluntary basis that’s never going to happen. So everybody if they’ve got any concerns about climate change has to register that concern with their Government officials because it’s the only way to go.” -Thom Yorke
Kenny Young, producer and Founder/Trustee of APE, explains how the project emerged: “The project was sparked off by the devastating Tsunami of Xmas 2005. The idea came in to do a project with The Buena Vista Social Club. To fuse their Latin sounds with Western artists and their familiar popular songs. The project evolved when more environmental disasters struck - the Asian Earthquakes and Hurricane Katrina. But the big picture was climate change. You can call these natural disasters but after all the research and scientific data, we know that we’re at least partly to blame for some of these disasters. Global warming is now in the news daily. If we don’t act in the time frame our experts give us, our grandchildren will curse us eternally.’
The artists on this album fully support the record as a show of commitment to the music and to the cause that it endorses. Thom Yorke comments, ‘We need a law, we need to have the Government put climate change in its’ place. If you leave industry to sort it out on a voluntary basis that’s never going to happen. So everybody if they’ve got any concerns about climate change has to register that concern with their Government officials because it’s the only way to go.’ (For a full list of quotes from the musicians involved, see attached document.)
“The incredibly obvious and real signs of global warming are all around us now. This is not an inevitable or irreversible situation yet. There is still time for each one of us to make the right choices and change the outcome.But time is definitely running out. This is not somebody else’s problem. If you live in this world it’s your responsibility to protect it’s future” -Dido
The packaging for the album is carbon neutral.
‘Rhythms Del Mundo’ is released on 20 November through Universal Music.
For more information on Artists Project Earth and how the proceeds from this album will benefit the charity, go to www. Apeuk.org
www.rhythmsdelmundo.com / www.apeuk.org
Track listing - (Listen to a few clips of the album.)
1. Clocks - Coldplay
2. Better Together - Jack Johnson
3. Dancing Shoes - Arctic Monkeys
4. One Step Too Far - Dido & faithless
5. As Time Goes By - Ibrahim Ferrer
6. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For - Coco & U2
7. She Will Be Loved - Maroon 5
8. Modern Way - Kaiser Chiefs
9. Killing Me Softly - Omara Portuondo
10. Ai No Corrida - Vanya &Quincy
11. Fragilidad - Sting
12. Don’t Know Why - Vanya
13. Hotel Buena Vista - Aquila Rose & Idana
14. The Dark of the Matinee - Coco & Franz Ferdinand
15. High and Dry - Lele & Radiohead Bonus track
16. Casablanca - Ibrahim & Omara
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