New York-based Latinx quartet Combo Chimbita have just announced their new album IRE, which is set for release January 28th via ANTI-. Today the band have also shared a video for their new single “Oya“. Filmed among the ruins of the abandoned Intercontinental Hotel in Ponce, Puerto Rico, the clip features a performance by interdisciplinary queer artist Lio Villahermosa whipping up an offering to Oya, orisha of the wind and ruler of storms.
“Oya is a very powerful feminine deity, goddess of storms and winds, guardian of cemeteries, and an entangled duel between calm and despair,” lead singer Carolina Oliveros explained. “So this song animates that reminder of a nuanced life where many of us share a calm external facade, while facing an internal whirlwind of uncertainty. It’s the meditative sigh that precedes moving forward toward our desires and dreams with conviction.”
Listen to “Oya” and watch the video for it below:
Combo Chimbita is the creative unity of Carolina Oliveros (vocals, guacharaca), Niño Lento es Fuego (guitar), Prince of Queens (bass, synthesizers) and Dilemastronauta (drums), who together transcend common concepts of time and nationality. As self-described Abya-yalistas seeking meaning beyond a Latin American framework, they carry the burning torch of an unbroken, insubmissive people, unshackling their essence from the cruelty of conquest throughout Abya Yala. “Music is a tool of connection across time, territory and generations,” says Prince of Queens.
Seeking greater understanding, Combo Chimbita explored Oliveros’ extensive study of bullerengue and sacred drumming traditions, which connected to the diasporic influence of Yoruban culture and its many syncretic manifestations across Abya Yala. “Our roots are calling to us,” she says about IRE‘s deeper plunge into spirituality, which had already shaped much of the band’s previous album, Ahomale (2019), and infuses fresh life into cuts like “Babalawo,” “Oya,” and the time-twisting hymn, “Todos Santos.”
“It’s important to listen and feel this worry and the desire to change and improve things,” adds Oliveros, capturing IRE‘s transcendent purpose to heal and construct a new world through the power of music. Like the jaguar before them, Combo Chimbita carries on; delicate, resilient and roaring.
IRE artwork & tracklist:
1. Oya
2. Babalawo
3. Me Fui
4. Memoria
5. La Perla
6. Sin Tiempo
7. Yo Me Lo Merezco
8. Indiferencia
9. De Frente
10. Lo Que Es Mio, Es Mio
11. Mujer Jaguar