CHICHA LIBRE
"One of the world's preeminent tropical psychedelic bands." MTV

Back in 2008, Chicha Libre launched the first psychedelic cumbia and chicha wave in North America with its debut album Sonido Amazonico (Barbès Records). The album was a tribute to 70’s Peruvian musicians from Lima and the Amazon and their eclectic mix of tropical rhythms and psychedelic sounds. The album followed the release of the compilation The Roots of Chicha (also on Barbès Records) which first documented Peruvian cumbia and chicha outside of Peru.

Sonido Amazonico garnered great reviews - from Pitchfork, NPR, The Village Voice, El Commercio (Peru), Rolling Stone (Argentina) and MTV. With Canibalismo, their follow-up album, Chicha Libre kept forging its own path with a deeper psychedelic sensibility and a freeform approach to cumbia that integrated even more heterogenous elements. The band toured around the world and proved particularly successful in Chile, Argentina and Mexico.

Chicha Libre mostly stopped touring in 2016, playing just a few shows in Mexico and Colombia. They started playing again earlier this year (2025). With shows in Mexico and the US, collaborations with, among others, Son Rompe Pera, Los Mirlos and Italian pop star Jovanotti.
They recorded a KEXP session this past spring and are planning on being active for the foreseeable future.
Stay tuned for a new album to be completed in 2026