Released: 19/05/23 (delayed from 05/05/23)
Canto A Lo Divino, the latest compilation from the phenomenal Mississippi Records, pays homage to the beguiling sacred campesina (peasant) music which is traditionally played in packed rooms throughout the night on the 25-string guitarron, its ancient melodies transmitted through the 10-line decima form, which originated in Spain and is found across the Caribbean, South America, and even into the Mississippi Delta. Rooted in the remote Central Valley of Chile at the skirt of the mountains, and following the slopes of the major rivers, the Canto tradition has persisted for centuries in the voices of hundreds of men and women who sing of saints, divine images, and angelitos (very young children who have died), as well as the daily life in the valley – labour and drought, family, animals, and plants. Canto A Lo Divino’s documentation of this strange, nocturnal and communal form of musical devotion is nothing less than essential listening. Sublime.