The Panorama Lighthouse is a section that is responsible for highlighting the most important releases in Ibero-America and is published simultaneously in all the media that make up the alliance, thus multiplying its reach and visibility. Every delivery updates us on the struggles in each of our countries, currently going through the reality of COVID-19, and on the news of their musical ecosystems. As we always say, there is much to discover out there. If you want to know what the region sounds like today, this is the place and the time.

Lighthouse is composed of IndieToday (Argentina), sounds from here (Bolivia), Scream&Yell (Brazil), shock (Colombia), Magazine AM:PM (Cuba),  POTQ (Chili), Sound World and Construction Area (Spain), Indie Rocks! (Mexico), Rock Achorao' (Peru) and Piiila (Uruguay). It also works to create original and innovative content, as well as various activities that serve to break down borders and build bridges between the different countries of Ibero-America.

Bolivia

By Pato Peters / sounds from here

Part joke, part serious, the year in Bolivia always starts after the Carnival holidays, so March marked the beginning or reactivation of activities for many people. Schools, for the most part, resumed classes after two years and for the first time since the pandemic began we had daily reports of no deaths nationwide. And while politics turns its attention to the election of the Ombudsman, with a series of candidates that seem to have been drawn from a bad version of the AvengersThe artists return to the stage almost without restrictions, beyond the use of masks in closed spaces. The massive congregations in Carnival did not increase the cases and we believe that we are getting closer and closer to the return to a kind of "normality".

These were some of the highlights of March in Bolivia:

Coinciding with the 8M, the Santa Cruz soloist La otra Minina presented a song with a strong message. The emotional Mute butterflies features the collaboration of two other artists from Santa Cruz, singer-songwriter Mila Magal and rapper Fiera. The three of them talk about femicide and indifference, both from the authorities and from people in general. In this regard, the composer commented: "I wish we didn't have to do this song, I wish it didn't hurt so much, I wish the word feminicide didn't exist and wasn't in our conversations". As if the song was not hard enough, it ends with these words that remain engraved: "they hurt me, they hurt me, that it doesn't hurt you is what hurts the most".

Also released on International Women's Day, and again with the participation of rapper Fiera, @Noni released Judas (So much to say)as a tribute to all the women who were betrayed. "We didn't write it with the intention of releasing it on this date, in that session we only wrote about what we felt and had lived", comments @Noni. With a video directed by Agustín Klarik it is the single successor to Perdónpublished on December 31 of last year.

National music mourned the departure of Omar Ríos, founding vocalist of the band Deszaire. Away from the stage for almost a decade due to an illness, the 44 year-old musician was the singing voice of important numbers of the national songbook, such as Are, Engravings of yesterday, All my desires and Reggae alonehaving released four albums with the group from La Paz between 2003 and 2012, the last of which was entitled Libre.

The soloist Luis Gamarra released his first album, a very intimate and personal work, as the musician himself describes his first collection. With six songs and an intro in the form of a poem, Libre brings back some of the singles that he has been promoting in the last two years, such as For a kiss, I do not change for you and the title track of the EP. The singer, originally from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, began his musical career almost a decade ago, having participated in American Idol in 2013 and in the reality The band on Univision in 2015. Libre comes after a very complicated period for the soloist, who at some point considered leaving music completely.

Nico Peña, Bolivian singer-songwriter based in Berlin, Germany, and the band Los Prana from La Paz, Bolivia, joined their talent in The danceablea collaborative song that was born during Peña's stay in Bolivia in 2021. It is the first sample of an ambitious project that will have the winner of the first version of the Sonidos de acá Songwriters contest releasing three EPs this year, all with guest musicians from different cities of the country, among them Gaby Ferreyra, Mila Magal, Fer Villarroel and Feluval. The first mini album will arrive at the end of May.

The teenager Ire Torrico shared the video clip of Caged, one of three songs from her sophomore EP released in February. The mini-album is the 13-year-old soloist's first collection of songs following her debut EP Follow your dream of 2019. The Santa Cruz native was co-authored by Mila Magal in this song, which also has the participation of Cinthia Valenz in the chorus.

Nine years after From Zerotheir debut album, and almost three years after their last released track, Avionicsthe project of José "Joti" Mrochek, from Cochabamba, returned with the first exhibition of The best thing that ever happened to mea 12-song album that was recorded at the legendary Sunset Sound studio in Los Angeles, California. The first single and video from the album, to be released in April, is entitled You do not know.

The metal band Nación presented the first single and video of their album DestinyThe album was produced by Argentinean Andrés Giménez, known as guitarist and lead vocalist of groups such as A.N.I.M.A.L. and De la Tierra. The third album of the quintet from La Paz began to be worked on before the pandemic and will be released in May of this year. The videoclip for the song that gives its name to the album was directed by Argentine videomaker and musician Penumbrart.

From Los Angeles, California, Ignacio Val, a native of La Paz, presented his album Live from Hollywooda live work that serves as a summary of 10 years of career. With 10 of their own songs and a version of Come Together The material was recorded in November of last year at the Bourbon Room in Hollywood and was broadcast on free-to-air television in Los Angeles. The show was part of the promotion of the EP If tomorrow there is no tomorrow to be published by the end of 2021.

Other arts

March was the month of the theatrical release in the country of The great movementthe award-winning film by La Paz director Kiro Russo. In his second feature film, the young filmmaker offers in almost 90 minutes a different vision of the city of La Paz, from the point of view of a sick miner. The film has won several international awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, Best Film at the Márgenes Festival in Cádiz, Best International Film at FIDOCS in Santiago de Chile, Best Cinematography at the Auteur Film Festival in Serbia and Best Director at the Bosphorus Film Festival in Istanbul.

Complementing what was announced in March, the Bolivian writer Liliana Colanzi was the winner of the VII International Ribera del Duero Award, for her book You shine in the darkwill be published in Bolivia, Colombia, Spain, Mexico and Uruguay on May 11, and in Argentina on June 1 of this year. The winning work was announced on March 24, having been selected from nearly a thousand candidates from 37 countries.

April. What's next...

Between April 20 and May 14, during four weekends in the city of Santa Cruz, the festival Música con M de Mujer will be held, an initiative of Sonidos de acá that will bring together many of the most important female artists in the country. Vero Pérez, Mayra Gonzales and Feluval from La Paz, Timpana and Fer Villarroel from Cochabamba are some of the artists who will arrive in the eastern capital to share with the local talent represented by Las Majas, Mila Magal, Mariana Massiel, Lu de la Tower and Fer Gómez, among many others.

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