Xavier Vinueza published the poem “Madre Cumbia” in his collection Si Acaso Dudar Me Salva, then adapted it into a song under his music name, AXHA, working in the minimal, experimental electronics he turned to this year at thirty, when he left a decorated advertising career.

He asked Sol Córdova to sing it. Córdova is a Chilean-Ecuadorian songwriter based in Quito who came up through vocal improvisation at Projazz in Santiago and contemporary music at USFQ, and her own records sit in contemporary Latin American folk-pop. She wrote the vocal melody and the arrangement herself, and layered her voice in phrasing she took from Colombian and Ecuadorian cumbia.

Córdova sings “Mi madre es cumbia,” then turns to the tambora, the two-headed drum of Colombian cumbia: “Dímelo tambora, cumbia maternal, si soy de aquí, de esta parranda espiritual.” Tell me, tambora, whether I belong here. It is a genuine question, and the repetition of the phrase in the closing section suggests the answer is not forthcoming.

Stream “Madre Cumbia” HERE