"This fifth album by the Argentinian singer, poet and shaman is intoxicating … a passionate celebration of Latin music” ★★★★☆ The Observer

"From Caribbean rhythms to Mexican waltzes and Andean huayno, Montenegro synthesizes these traditional influences" Bandcamp (The Best Folk Music on Bandcamp: October 2023)

"Soema Montenegro is giving Argentina’s landscape a voice" Songlines

"Killer" Gilles Peterson

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Argentine folk/experimental artist Soema Montenegro describes album Círculo Radiante, as an “embrace of territory”; an encompassing sonic ode to Latin American sounds, landscapes, and people, which is released on October 19th 2023 by Mais Um.

Montenegro was born in the outskirts of Buenos Aires in 1979, growing up between the countryside and the jungles, sparking a lifelong fascination between the connection of music and place. Known as the “shaman-poet”, she channels her voice into chant-like sounds that bestow respect to nature, echoing the traditions of ancestral communities. A budding musicologist who researches the use of song and vocal gestures in Latin America, she has achieved world-wide critical acclaim with her own unique style. She has toured global stages and was the subject of a 2010 documentary by renowned French filmmaker Vincent Moon.

Her fifth full-length album, Circulo Radiante is a remarkable evolution of Montenegro’s work, coupling the modernity of electro-instrumentalisation with her own raw, ancestral approach to composition. Working alongside producer Leo Martinelli (Tremor), an artist who has ingeniously connected Latin American folk and modern electronica, Círculo Radiante reveals a new chapter to Montenegro’s writing capabilities and vocal mastery, yet never betrays her innate connection to land, place, and people.

“Círculo Radiante is the sun, it is a great embrace of a territory with so much to say, that always inspires, that is connected to nature. I share many things with the people who live in nature, and am closer to their cosmology than one of urban-dwellers” - Soema Montenegro

The album is a sweeping study of the rhythms intrinsic to Latin America’s cultural diversity; a sound journey from the Altiplano villages that stretches to the Caribbean shores, returning to the untamed wilderness of Montenegro’s childhood.

"I had a spiritual need to create music that speaks of the land, that can say what cannot be expressed in words. I work with sonic gestures and wanted to incorporate electronic music that could replicate the landscape through sounds" Soema Montenegro

The album opens with the gentle sounds of the wind in “Viento Norte” that blends into soft, melodic verse. If Circulo Radiante is a journey, then “Viento Norte” is our departure point: from the mountains of the Altiplano, where the northern wind arrives every afternoon without fail. In her singing, Montenegro achieves a sense of airiness that quietens and soars, mirroring the fluctuating strength of the breeze.

Second track “Caminante” surges forth with rhythmic power, signalling a departure onwards. Translating to “the walker”, “Caminante” is anchored to the act of movement; the rushing beat mimicking the pace of feet touching the ground. The music pauses towards the end of the song, returning triumphantly with a wave of synths and Quenacho chimes; the walk breaks into a run, an excitement to go forward.

“To walk in a place is to know it, which makes sense as I sing in relation to spaces. To walk the mountain is to be cleansed. One walks to walk off problems and burdens; in walking humanity is able to wake up.” - Soema Montenegro

Ultimately, “Caminante” is a fierce ode to the joy of nature and the urgency to protect it. It not only captures the healing power of the environment, but also addresses the duality of mankind; one that chains the very source of their very liberation. Montenegro condemns the multinational megamines of Argentina that devour ancient landscapes and threaten their communities.

“It’s a powerful reality lived in Argentina, in all of Latin America,” she says; the breathlessness of the song captures this sense of resistance. “It’s fury, a desire to break it all.”

Despite these moments of rage; the album is overarchingly joyous. “San Pedro” stems from the celebration of carnival, told from the perspective of an innocent narrator, tempted to dance with the devil. ¿Será que es carnaval? “Will it be carnival?” She asks throughout, heralding the arrival of the event. The plucked charango strings of the verse are borrowed from the Huyano traditions of the Altiplano indigenous, who embrace carnival as a time of unrestrained release. A pleasurably hedonistic climax is achieved through trills of ecstatic release.

“Carnival is when everything is allowed, an uncontrolled time when the spirits are cleansed. I think it’s necessary to disappear to be able to re-appear,” she explains. While Montenegro stresses she does not strictly follow the rhythmic patterns of traditional Andean music, she allows her vocal gestures to magnify the celebration of the soundscape. “I don’t just compose lyrics and music, it’s more what happens with the vocal work.”

From the Andean landscape of Argentina, Montenegro guides us further north to the sounds of Central America. “La Huesera '' is a Mexican waltz inspired by Clarissa Pínkola Estés’ seminal 1993 work “Women Who Run With Wolves”. La Huesera is revered by Montenegro as a symbol of renewal through motherhood; the strength of her voice tells the story of transformation with transcendent might and loving poignancy. “Toro” is a gleeful dance that draws from the rhythms and colours of Central America caribeño, playing with the masculine and feminine energies. On “Selva”, we return to the jungle of Montenegro’s childhood, with shivering sounds that recall the hiss of the serpent, and haunting cries that echo the sighs of the immense, towering trees.

Circulo Radiante is a testament to Montenegro’s masterful ability to construct places through sounds; transporting listeners not only to a visual depiction of a space, but immersing them into breathtaking sensations. It is a powerful journey that exhibits Montenegro’s intimate knowledge of indigenous cultures, and a deep appreciation of musician traditions that extends from Argentina and traverses Latin America in its entirety.

A celebration of nature and people, more than a record, it is a remarkable portrait of culture and land at risk to the ever growing threat of climate change and industry.

“This is an important moment in Latin America. The water, the land are at crucial moments. It is the time to give them a voice, to sing their joy, manifest their energies, and bring consciousness” - Soema Montenegro.