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.

Spain

By Sound World and Construction Area  

These are not good times. Just when the pandemic was beginning to show signs of noticeable improvement and we all thought that the economy would recover and lost time, along came the invasion of Ukraine. The worst part is experienced by the Ukrainian population who suffer the tragedy in first person, but the collateral damage of the war reaches Europe and Spain in the form of inflation, something we are not used to. Now it's time to talk about the price of Russian gas and oil... In the midst of this panorama of uncertainty, we take refuge once again in music. Here is a review of the most important new releases in March.

Rosalía's long awaited new album is already among us. Motomami is a melting pot album, which has played in the previews to draw a mental image that does not correspond to the reality of the complete, heterogeneous and sparkling work. Saokothe song-interjection that kicks off the album, exceeds its apparent musical irrelevance as a statement of intent; the bachatica with The Weeknd is marvelous; with Bulerías remembers where he comes from and where he still goes; with three soft piano pieces he seems to sing to the newly arrived spring with a crystalline delicacy. A great album, with plenty of songs that touch the heart and electrify the coccyx.

Mondo Sonoro demos before the release of their first album, Disorder (18), the Valencians La Plata are one of those groups against the current, despite sounding totally current. Unaware of the most cloying and passing fashions, La Plata have just released Direct actiona second work that does justice to the expectations that had been generated in this regard. One of those recordings that will grow and grow step by step now that it is already available on all the platforms of streaming. 

With the quest for renewal as a way of breathing, with the brand-new All the sameTremenda Jauría launches itself into the race by means of a rock exposition of the urban forms that define our current pop. The album offers a rainbow in constant collision, from which bubblegum-punk, pop, reggaetón with resounding basses or riffs playing with hard-rock dynamics. All seasoned with a lot of cheek and freshness.

Ses Entranyes (RGB, 22) is a new incarnation of that Xarim Aresté that, at every step, he is older and younger at the same time. He feels more conscious of his energetic flow, a force pulled by the horns of a powerful mythological animal. But it is also one of the best albums he has made to date. Sensitive, emotional, with excellent melodies and arrangements, one of those works with which an artist claims his role in the world. 

Imbued with the depths of pop in slow-motionKora gives us Out of placean absorbing polychromatic album. In it, the Catalan music of twenty years imposes the rule of "anything goes" through a melting pot of songs channeled from the most different fronts. Whether from the pop propulsion star by The party or in the melancholic bossa nova saudade woven in  I don't want to get upThe path taken does not understand predictability or commonplaces. With this work, Kora reaffirms himself as a proverbial bad ass to keep track of.

Sheila Patricia share the theme A mouraand its videoclip, which belongs to the album that will be his album Orixe. The artist drinks from Baiuca and Rodrigo Cuevasamong other influences. Specifically, A moura is a preview of the African electronic sound combined with traditional Galician singing that will characterize the artist's next work. Her previous tracks are characterized by both Galician and Argentine/Asturian folklore, from which she takes reference. Also characteristic are the continuous percussion, with the use of the guitar, and the theme of feminine strength in her songs. A moura consecrates Sheila Patricia as a multifaceted artist, with a unique background, which serves as an excuse to claim her position and role in the Galician music scene.

Natalia Quintanal was born in Gijón. She was part of Nosoträsh in the mid 90s. Later she formed Electra with Pau Roca from La Habitación Roja. In 2014 she presented herself as La Villana recording a beautiful self-released album. Now, years later, fusing retro and sophistication, tropicalism and border rock, comes Oathsa delightful song with which he rubs shoulders with the international music scene. neo-pop psychedelia. To enjoy while waiting for the album to be released by Mushroom Pillow next September.

Ane Barcena and Raquel Pagés are Pinpilinpussies, one of the Barcelona duos that reclaim the pop melodies linking them with a post-punk fierceness that suits them really well. After their previous Force 3 (20), are once again releasing on the independent label Alour Music, HypochondriaThe album combines Spanish, Catalan, English and Basque in a rock amalgam that has yet to bear its best fruits, but which gives us ample warning of the potential of the Basque-Catalan duo.

BOYE presents his new song Veni Vidi Vicia fusion of rap, pop and electronica in which the Barcelona artist shamelessly moves away from the clichés of the rapper. BOYE is the stage name of actor, stage creator and singer David Menéndez (Barcelona, 1989). A multidisciplinary artist who burst onto the music scene with the EP Boye, we love you, but you are nobody (2019), five tracks produced by Arnau Vallvé (drummer of the Catalan pop band Manel) that surprise for their freshness and boldness when mixing genres such as hip hop, funk or electronica with a boldness that borders on insolence. Each of the songs also has the visual complement of its own art as well as a video clip in charge of different creatives who contribute with their sensitivity and talent, elevating the transversal condition of the project. His lyrics move away from the cliché of the hard rapper to show us a more human and cynical vision of reality, in that constant search for the place we occupy in the world.

Between March 18 and 27, the Malaga FestivalThe Spanish-language film festival celebrated its twenty-fifth edition, recovering its red carpet after two years of pandemic and offering an Official Selection made up of a total of 21 films, 13 Spanish and eight Latin American. The big winner was Five little wolves, a portrait of motherhood by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa that won several awards, including the Golden Biznaga for Best Spanish Film. The award for Best Ibero-American Film went to the Bolivian-Uruguayan co-production. Utamaby Alejandro Loayza Grisi, a film set in the Bolivian highlands that had already won an award at the Sundance Festival.

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