Hankel Bellido - Yavireri: Los que viven en lo profundo (2025)

Field recordist and film composer Hankel Bellido spent two years in the Peruvian Amazon to put together 'Yavireri', capturing songs and soundscapes that characterize the Matsigenka communities' experience deep in the Megantoni National Park.

Living in the rainforests that grow on the eastern slopes of the Andes and in the Amazon Basin, the Matsigenka are a small group of indigenous hunter gatherers turned farmers, whose traditional animist beliefs and traditional customs have long fascinated onlookers. Anthropologists have indeed criticized fetishistic studies of the group's idiosyncratic cultures, and that's what makes 'Yavireri' so interesting. It's a remarkably subtle treatment from Bellido, who makes sure to foreground the nature; we hear the voice of oral teacher and guardian Edith Auca Ríos first, but immediately afterwards we're treated to the environment, the sounds of insects, streams and campfires.

The Matisgenka language is unwritten, and the history is transmitted through the songs that pepper the album. Translated by Marisol Vargas Auca, Ríos' songs guide us through the day-to-day life of the Matisgenka, and there's a sense that this time we're getting a sensitive guide. In his two years coexisting with the Matsigenka communities, Bellido - who investigated Peruvian traditional sounds in a completely different way on 2020's 'Chakana' - seems to have developed a rapport that allowed him a unique level of access. It's through him that we're able to absorb this sensitive portrayal, and get a sense of life in the high jungle, or montaña.

Tracklist:
1-1 Hankel Bellido - Cantos al Amanecer [0:40]
1-2 Hankel Bellido - Rio Bajo Urubamba [1:56]
1-3 Hankel Bellido - Canción de Pesca [0:46]
1-4 Hankel Bellido - Niños Jugando en Canoa [3:36]
1-5 Hankel Bellido - Cantos de Pajaritos [1:16]
1-6 Hankel Bellido - Capirona [3:36]
1-7 Hankel Bellido - Canto de Cuna [1:20]
1-8 Hankel Bellido - Atardecer en Megantoni [3:00]
1-9 Hankel Bellido - Cuento de el Ayahuasca [2:24]
1-10 Hankel Bellido - Matsigenka en rio [2:44]
1-11 Hankel Bellido - Canto de luto o despedida [1:32]
1-12 Hankel Bellido - Transiciones de agua [3:24]
1-13 Hankel Bellido - Canto al Dios Tasorinchi [1:48]
1-14 Hankel Bellido - Anochecer en Megantoni [1:16]