With a melancholic and very personal air, Alea shows us a bit of her childhood and her history in ‘Aire Guajiro’. The song is influenced by provincial Paseo Vallenato (genre from the north coast of Colombia), with a contemporary and playful harmony.

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Connoisseurs of traditional Colombian music know very well that Vallenato is an essential part of the collective identity and memory of the region, that the genre is in the blood and that it has a deep and sentimental power of evocation. They also know that, traditionally, it is a style in which women have little presence, but this has been changing thanks to artists who, like Alea, applaud it, embrace it and show it to the world.

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Co-written and produced by Sinuhé Padilla-Isunza, ‘Aire Guajiro’ has an ambivalent power: on the one hand, it is a tribute to Alea's father and the Colombian musical tradition; on the other, it is an open invitation to leave behind what no longer satisfies us, for example: the exclusion of women in a gender that, in their voices and hands, is revitalized and reinvented. "I grew up with gender, I carry it in my blood, and although they say that Vallenato is not feminine, there are many women like me, bringing it to the 21st century", shares Alea.

 

It was recorded and mixed at Jarana Records in the Bronx, NY. And the mastering was done by GRAMMY Winner Luis F. Herrera at Masterhead Lab Mastering Studio.

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As is customary in her work, Aire Guajiro had the participation of guest musicians: Franco Pinna on drums; Jonathan Gómez in the cajón and the guacharaca and Sinuhé Padilla-Isunza in the backing vocals, the lioness and the guitar. But the key element came from Miche Molina, accordionist from the Colombian municipality Juan de Acosta, who "materialized our nostalgia in the form of melodies and gave it that provincial touch that we were so yearning for."