AYA Records Presents El León Pardo – “La Perica”

“La Perica” is the first single from Viaje Sideral, the new album from El León Pardo.

“La Perica” refers to a possible weapon designed by Caribbean peasants. This song shows the spiritual role of the indigenous kuisi, inspired by legends of liberation and the brave ‘lions’—the name given to those who took on the fight against the conquest of the Caribbean—who defended the territory in the times of the first colonization of Cartagena de Indias, formerly Calamarí.

One night in Bogotá, the maestro Freddys Arrieta (born in San Juan Nepomuceno, Colombia), a great inspiration for the kuisi players and for León Pardo, told us how this “perica” weapon worked. It was a kind of machete that had an iron sphere as a handle, crafted by the natives to defend the city from constant pirate raids and from the Spanish crown itself, which for a long time had sought to reconquer the Calamari territory and the rest of what was once Nueva Granada, today the Republic of Colombia. For El León Pardo and the peoples of Montes de María, resistance has other meanings and comes in different forms. It has a close relationship with the crafting of weapons, and with the crafting of every one of their musical instruments and the tools used for farming and hunting. Therefore, this song with its festive and fast sound is a conduit to the past of Cartagena de Indias, whose melody revitalizes the free spirit of the Caribbean peasant music: wild and always in resonance with the origin of life beyond death.

“La Perica” is an intentional mix of a puya and a merengue de gaita. The puya is the fastest rhythm in the indigenous kuisi style, while the merengue is the fastest rhythm in the black kuisi. In the instrumentation, El León Pardo used traditional kuisi percussion (llamador, tambura and tambor alegre, two kuisi and maracas). Various digital synths were used for the song’s effects, as well as the Korg MS20 analog synth.

Like the rest of the album, the song was coproduced by Samuel Vélez, a Cartagena producer and musician with Magdalena blood, who accompanied El León Pardo in the process of exploring the production format that can be appreciated on “La Perica.” The percussion was recorded entirely by Humberto Barrios, the two kuisis and the maracas were recorded by El León, as well as some digital synths in the company of Samuel. The analog synth was recorded by El León; the bass was recorded by Cristian Salazar from Cartagena, and the guitar was recorded by Omar Rodríguez Salgado, also from Cartagena.

“La Perica” single and video are out now on all digital platforms.

"Viaje Sideral" will be out on vinyl and all digital platforms on March 21st, 2025.

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