Grupo Luma make their La Linea debut to take you on a journey through Chilean & South American political song.

11 September 2023 will mark fifty years since the coup against the Salvador Allende government in Chile. What followed was the darkest period in Chile’s history. Grupo Luma will commemorate this by performing some of the most iconic songs of Allende’s Popular Unity era and Latin America’s Nueva canción. Nueva canción – new song movement – developed in the 1960s, renewing traditional Latin American folk music, and was associated with the rising revolutionary movements. Grupo Luma present their own contemporary arrangements of songs by Victor Jara, Violeta Parra, Atahualpa Yupanki, Inti Illimani and others.

Grupo Luma will also perform original compositions that explore the experiences of exile. Grupo Luma is led by Chilean brothers Francisco and Oscar Carrasco who came to the UK as exiles in 1975; Francisco was 11 and Oscar 14.

Alborada founder Pablo Navarrete will premiere a commissioned video piece to accompany the performance. This will blend archive of Latin American political song, Chilean history and art, and Alborada Films’ footage from across the region, as well as archive footage of Grupo Luma’s performances in Liverpool, where the group is based.

This night promises to be a feast of melodies, rhythms and powerful, thought-provoking lyrics that pay tribute to Chile and South America’s political song and the spirit of progressive change of which they form part.

Part of La Linea - the London Latin Music Festival