Pambele

Mario Vargas, Lorenzo Morrone, Luisa Caceres, and Alex Lefko decided to form a collective highlighting the Afro-Colombian traditional rhythms of the Atlantic coast in France. The group then began to perform on stage in Lyon, boosted by collaborations with local singers such as Rebecca Roger and Margaux Delatour (Parranda La Cruz, Pixvae, Ti’kaniki..).

Over time the band’s taste widened to encompass “Picos” – Colombian Soundsystems where blasted the popular “Champetas Africanas, psychedelic 60’s Cumbias, and the godparents of the genre as Abelardo Carbono, the stars of the Machuca label… and this widening taste was echoed in a reconfigured band line-up. Electric instruments arrived in Pambelé!

With the addition of french keyboardist Paul Charnay and New Zealander guitarist Giles Davenport, Pambelé adopted its final form: a condensed raw material where the trance of drums and traditional song gracefully intertwines with the Farfisa organ and its devastating riffs, and finely thistled and bewitching phrases of psychedelic guitaristry.

After accumulating significant stage experience together, the group decided to compose its first opus. To round out this harmonious tableau and provide a focal point, Pambelé passes the mic to Panamanian singer Yomira John. Her sincere, warm, and incisive voice, heard alongside, envelops the combo with passion.

Through this blending, Pambelé forcefully inscribes itself in a transatlantic cultural universality and offers both in its debut album and on stage an unlimited playground, a voluptuous, torrid, and exuberant trance.