CARAL (2003)

Tim Panting, editor Classical Guitar Magazine
The striking design for the cover, painted by Joaquin Ardilles ‘Canaleta’, of Quimantu’s latest recording, has a giant figure rising from a mountain peak, arm raised high holding a charango defiantly in its fist - in stark monochrome it is a powerful image.

Since Quimantu’s emergence in the early 80s, Mauricio Venegas has established one of Europe’s and certainly Great Britain’s most vibrant ensembles, performing Latin American music with passion and intelligence. His unsurpassable energy has been the starting point for many ensembles including Incantation, Jacara and the One World Band. The musicians that have entered Venegas’s creative melting pot make for a veritable who’s who of top world and classical musicians from around the globe.

I was lucky enough to see Quimantu perform material from Caral at the Wiltshire Music Centre at the end of 2003. The concert was sold out several times over and the audience was treated to a performance full of emotional depth and great entertainment. The band was augmented by session wizard Graham Preskett and percussionist Carlos Fuentes, who are both absent from the recording but will be on tour with Quimantu in 2004. But one name both on the recording and on tour with Quimantu is John Williams, whose career has probably been more diverse than any other classical guitarist on the planet. On Caral he plays on no less than five tracks and his clear and effortless tone blends miraculously with the sensuous tones of Rachel Pantin’s violin. Pantin also plays harp, viola, mandolin and electric violin on the recording. African drummer Musa Mboob also lends his talents on several tracks. Multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey, who is a central figure when Quimantu plays live appears on the opening track playing saxophone and clarinet but has arranged a beautiful Thai melody Ayuthaya, which Rachel Pantin picks delicately on the harp before it segues into The Plane Tree. Bassist Jonathan Davies completes the line up and provides an unobtrusive yet vital depth to Quimantu. The soul of Quimantu emanates from the heart of Mauricio Venegas, from Vagalunas, a tender song about the plight of homeless children of the street to Paz, a lively plea for an end to suffering throughout the world.

A recording with a magnificent sound, produced with a discipline that makes the music jump straight out of the speakers, the clarity is amazing. Venegas has created a beautiful album. Highly recommended.

Mark Troop, music journalist
Once in a while a disc appears that is not simply a collection of great tracks by great musicians, but offers a vision beyond the purely musical. A newly discovered archaeological site in Perú called “Caral” is the inspiration for the new disc from Quimantú. With its integration of musical styles and instrumentalists from varied backgrounds, Caral is an eloquent and impassioned plea for humanity in an age of extremism and government-sanctioned lawlessness.

Although Quimantú is technically an Andean band in reality it is anything but. For many years director Mauricio Venegas has incorporated non-Andean instruments into the group, and Caral is a master class in seamless integration based on musicians’ qualities rather than their instruments. Thus the disc includes Gambian sabar, violin and viola, Celtic harp and even saxophone alongside the traditional Latin American instruments. In Caral they sound extraordinarily natural together. The disc is an inspirational rejoinder to those that seek to put music in small compartments.
The musical journey starts and ends in Latin America, with British and even Thai excursions along the way. The special strengths of Quimantú are in its reinterpretation of existing material and the creation of the new. Wonderful arrangements of Violeta Parra’s Run Run se fue pal’ norte and Gardel’s Volver are alongside English and Thai traditional melodies. Most eloquent and spirited of all, maybe, and central to the message of the disc, are Venegas’ own compositions, making up the bulk of the album.

A vibrant disc with an impassioned message that does not preach or overstay its welcome.

BBC Music Magazine April 2004 (Robert Maycock)
Things are rarely what they seem this month. The first two discs, for instance, come from northern Europe. And why shouldn't they, given the degree of migration and travel that city-dwellers at least now experience as part of everyday life? London's inhabitants have long been diverse enough to come up with QUIMANTU's pan-Latin stance and international guest list - this headed by John Williams, who lends his guitar to the mix of plucked strings on several tracks and is an old enough hand to fit in deftly without showing off. Flutes, a violin and singers come and go, among the latter a direct and energetic contribution from Musa Mboob, duetting with the soft-edged, tremulous resident vocalist. Fine musicianship and haunting tunes are the rule in an easygoing, slightly old- fashioned but beautifully integrated and composed collaboration.