The South Pacific of Colombia bears the roots of the ancestral culture of its Afro-descendant peoples. There by the emerald green waters of the Telembí river to the salty sea full of flavor passing through Tumaco, marimba music, traditional songs, drums and black history emerge from one of the regions where you can breathe Currulao, bambuco, bunde, abozao, lullabies, chigualos and lots of Flow.

During 2022 the music of this territory has been playing louder than ever, groups like Bejuco, Afro Legends, the Changó Group, Semblanzas del Río Guapi, Ruca and the Quinde de Barbacoas, Verito Asprilla, MA Studio and ZooMusic demonstrated that art is breathed in the streets of this region and that Discos Pacífico, the record label that serves as a creative laboratory for the music of the Colombian Pacific, has fulfilled the mission of presenting to the world the powerful sounds and innovative propositions of vibrant scene woven from Tumaco, Timbiquí, Guapi and Cali.

“Since the birth of Discos Pacífico, we have started looking for the guardians of tradition, the renegades of the currulao, the Afrofuturist excursions of the marimba, the project that is translating the science of bunde and play into the language of machines. We find the poet who is writing the lyrics of the next hymns that will tell the Pacific world about him. Today there are more than 110 countries that we have reached with the music of our artists”, assured Diego Gómez, creative director of Discos Pacífico.

And is that, in 2022, Discos Pacífico has managed to consolidate more than one million stream views, 91 songs have been released and more than $139,000,000 has been sold in digital distribution, live concert sales, merchandising and sync licensing. Figures that prove that the music scene in the Pacific is growing as strong as the supply of its tide and that the musical product made in Colombia is destined for export.

“The talent of our groups is so great that Bejuco has already performed on one of the stages of Estéreo Picnic, one of the most important festivals in the country. Now it’s the turn of Semblanzas de Río Guapi who will be present at the same festival in 2023. But it’s not here, just a few days ago Afro Legends arrived from Cali to make the Rock participants dance in the park with their proposed Afro rhythms”, confirmed Diego Gomez

Discos Pacífico is consolidated as the label that seeks to connect the South Pacific with the possibilities of the new music industry, a creative laboratory where an industry that responds to the territory is dreamed of, its people and a diverse development. The label, created by Llorona Records, in alliance with the program #TerritoriesOfOpportunity of USAID, operates as a bridge where many local processes are connected to resonate strongly, exploring possibilities for work and artistic growth based on dialogue with agents and audiences from around the world.

“We firmly believe that the cultural and creative industry is one of the main axes for the promising development of our South Pacific and we bet on music as the dynamic axis of this whole model which is generating employment and development based on culture.”, he stressed Jorge Amézquita, South Pacific Cultural and Creative Industry Strategy Technical Coordinator for the USAID Territories of Opportunity Program.

In addition to the process of creative exploration and musical production that has been worked on, Discos Pacífico celebrated that in 2022 the working groups or “Local cells” of the seal in Guapi and Tumaco.

If you want to know more about the Creative Workshop for the music of the Colombian Pacific, do it click here.