After A 3-Year Hiatus, Monsieur Periné Is Back With ‘Encanto Tropical’ And A Summer Tour

Colombian stars Monsieur Periné have released their new album ‘Encanto Tropical‘. The album is the group’s first release since their Latin GRAMMY win for “Best New Artist” in 2015. The new single “Bailar Contigo” was featured as a NPR “Songs We Love” and broke into the Spotify Viral Charts in 22 countries across the Americas and Europe upon release. The song now has more than 10 million total streams.

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“‘Bailar Contigo’ has all the vibes from the Periné world of sounds,” says Monsieur Periné co-founder and multi-instrumentalist Santiago Prieto. “Songs with creative and unpredictable structures each with their own unique identity. A balance between pop and alternative, experimental and folk, vintage and modern. These are all reflected in ‘Bailar Contigo.'”

The new album ‘Encanto Tropical‘ culminates the evolution of Monsieur Periné’s sound from acoustic Django Reinhart-inspired Gypsy-Jazz to hybrid electronica Latin groove pop. Formed by singer Catalina García and principal collaborator Prieto in the Colombia colonial village of Villa de Leyva in 2007, the band originally played a small repertory of boleros and bossa nova tunes at weddings and parties.

With ‘Encanto Tropical,’ Monsieur Periné returned to the production genius of Eduardo Cabra a/k/a Visitante of Calle 13. The band and Cabra had worked together on their sophomore album ‘Caja de Música,’ which was nominated for a 2015 Latin GRAMMY in the “Album of the Year” category.

Garcia explains that the band had been moving toward “trying to find a bridge between the sound that we’ve always had, which has been acoustic, and the electronic sound which has always appealed to us.” They also came to the new album’s recording session with a little more discipline about their composing, bringing Cabra over 30 songs, from which they eventually weeded out 11. “I think on ‘Caja de Música’ they made a project that was from the heart, but for the second album, we all came with a lot of ambition, and the desire to make an even stronger record,” said Cabra.

Monsieur Periné challenged themselves to grow by collaborating with legendary talents like Mexico’s Julieta Venegas on the song “Veneno,” Leonel García (of Sin Bandera) on “La Sombra,” and Argentina’s Vicentico (Los Fabulosos Cadillacs) on “La Tregua,” which Colombia’s own Juancho Valencia, who has worked with Calle 13 and ChocQuibTown, co-composed. The collaborations, as Prieto observed, “enriched” the band’s composing experience, but also allowed for a more fully realized way to express themselves.

Through the producing wizardry of Cabra, ‘Encanto Tropical’ uses a staggeringly eclectic palette of genres, rhythms and styles that represent the cutting edge of Latin alternative pop hybridism. “Vámonos,” for instance is a breezy Colombian bambuco-inspired track; “Bailar Contigo,” though basically a pop song, has Pacific Coast drums, mixed with Brazilian cavaquinho guitars; “Infinito,” is a slippery-haunting electro-samba, and “La Truega” (The Truce), as Cabra tells it, uses “references a tune by Guadeloupian singer Francky Vincent called ‘Fruit de la Passion.’ The idea was to make it a kind of cruise-ship tune that was cool within its cliché.”

Following the band’s tradition of including something French on at least one song, García even includes a brief en Francais rap improvisation in the yearning “Llévame,” which was composed with the band’s percussionist Miguel Guerra. Her affinity comes from having studied in an international school in her hometown of Cali, but her influences reveal a lot not only about her work, but the potential and promise of Monsieur Periné.

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“I grew up listening to a lot of Latin American trova because of my mom, especially Mercedes Sosa,” said García. “But I also connect with singers like Buika, Chavela Vargas, colleagues like Natalia Lafourcade or Andrea Echeverri. I’m also inspired by traditional singers like Toto la Momposina, Chavita Grande, Mayra Andrade. I like singers that express a story, that are not just perfectionists in their interpretation.”

‘Encanto Tropical‘ brilliantly succeeds in telling those kinds of stories. It’s an album that captures a band at their creative peak and is ready to take its place in the pantheon of contemporary Latin music greats.

MONSIEUR PERINÉ NORTH AMERICA TOUR DATES
June 3 Upstream Music Festival & Summit – Seattle, WA
June 4 Arts Common – Calgary, AB Canada
June 6 Miner Auditorium (San Francisco Jazz Festival) – San Francisco, CA
June 7 Kuumbwa – Santa Cruz, CA
June 9 Hollywood Bowl (Playboy Jazz Festival) – Los Angeles, CA
June 10 North Beach Bandshell – Miami, FL
June 12 Paradise Rock Club – Boston, MA
June 13 The Howard Theatre – Washington, DC
June 16 Highline Ballroom – New York, NY