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), 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.

Cuba

By Magazine AM:PM

November was a busy month for Cuban music in terms of awards. At the Latin Grammy gala, held in Las Vegas on the 18th, Homeland and Life it was the winner in the category of Song of the Year and Best Urban Song; while Cha Cha Chá: Tribute to the Traditional by Alain Pérez, Issac Delgado and the Aragón Orchestra won in the category of Best Traditional Tropical Album and Voyager by Iván Melón Lewis in the Best Latin Jazz Album. 

On this side of the pond, the Cuerda Viva awards were held, dedicated to alternative music, where the group The Shepal stood out with the single Petroleum that in addition to being the most popular, was awarded in the category of Best Pop Song. Lucas Awards, which are awarded to the best audiovisual works of the year. Here the video of the mambi, Traditional trova piece performed by the late singer-songwriter Santiago Feliú and directed by Roly Peña and Alejandro Pérez, was the winner in the Video of the Year category; while The champion, by El Kimiko and Yordy ft. Michel Boutic, directed by Helier Muñoz, swept the popularity vote.

But the awards were not the only thing that happened in the month of November, here we leave the selection of Magazine AM: PM of the most relevant releases. 

Two great voices of Cuban music come together in She and me (Bis Music, 2021), a beautiful tribute to the troubadour tradition where great classics of the song appear in Spanish. In this album by Miriam Ramos and Haydée Milanés you can find versions of iconic pieces of traditional Latin American music such as Absence (Fernando Celada) and Yolanda (Pablo Milanes).

This is, of course, the omnipresent song at all the parties on the Island. Here El Taiger and El Happy give us a theme that mixes elements of urban music with the use of the tres, an instrument of the Cuban peasant musical tradition, to mark the cadence of the theme with a riff that just listening to it makes your head loop. Undoubtedly a good choice for your next gathering of friends.

After a year of incessant production, El Micha closes its cycle of releases with the presentation of the long-awaited GAD (Thanks god), one more example that the rapper refines the quality of his musical production with each release, without losing an iota of what defines his sound identity. GAD, recorded at the JUNGL studios in Miami, includes collaborations with great artists of the urban genre such as Cosculluela, Zion & Lennox, Ñengo Flow, J Alvarez, Vakero, Chis Tamayo, Lyanno, Anonimus, Gué Pequeno, Mackie, Ozziel and Young Blade.

White Noise is one of the emerging bands in music indie that little by little is becoming a voice within the Cuban musical scene. With the desire to make different music, linked to pop-rock and ballads, this month he gives us what a way to be broken, a single that, according to these musicians, will be the only love song of songs for shadow, their first album currently in production. It is a very special theme, groundbreaking and full of complicity. You can not lose this.

In the purest Dominican dembow style, Cuban Ovi joins Kiko El Crazy in another song that aspires to dominate year-end perreo spaces throughout the continent. The Cuban rapper, barely 20 years old, demonstrates in this song his flow and ability to mount on top of any beat they put on you, even outside your comfort zone. Ovi is, without a doubt, one of the most promising and prolific emerging figures in the urban genre, an artist to keep an eye on.

The Cuban electronic music and alternative rock group Kill The Party joins David Blanco and Havana Sweet House to present this remix of rock star, where they mix the instrumentation of both projects with the voice of David, one of the most relevant figures of Cuban national rock of the 21st century. In this theme they link elements of trap, electronic music and hip-hop between riffs of electric guitars, also taking influences from industrial rock.

The iconic Orquesta Aragón brings us, in a recently recorded potpourri, some of the most representative musical pieces from its historical repertoire (The Incarnation Pass, stop coachman), in a self-tribute for its more than 80 years of foundation. A material that may be of interest to those who are nostalgic, but, above all, to those who prefer to know what musical coherence keeps one of the most important groups in Cuban music in popular taste. With luxury Latin American guests such as Puerto Ricans Jerry and Gerardo Rivas and Dominican José Alberto The Canary, the theme is pure Caribbean flavor that will not leave your waist unscathed. 

Brayan Álvarez, son of the recently deceased Adalberto Álvarez, composed this emotional piece where, together with the band that his father led for many years, he makes a heartfelt tribute to the musician and person who was The Knight of Sound during his long career in music. A well-deserved and beautiful farewell for one of the most iconic figures in Cuban music.

Elephanto is a rapper who belongs to a new collaborative movement called Space, which is proposed as a pillar of the new scene underground Havana. On this occasion, with production by JD Asere, it presents the video clip of It does not convince me, a theme that criticizes the disposition of many artists to reproduce almost exactly the work of their referents.

The music of Ibeyi, a duo founded in Paris in 2013 by Cuban-born sisters Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz, contains strong influences from the Afro-Cuban musical tradition mixed with electronic music and elements of hip-hop. In Made of Gold reunite with Pa Salieu in what marks the start of production on their third studio album. The single connects with the ancestors of the artists, and this is precisely the line that they intend to follow in the long duration that is expected by 2022, according to what they quoted in an interview for NME.

December. What's Coming: 

From December 3 to 12, still with limited capacity in theaters, the second part of the renowned International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in its 42nd edition, where more than 120 feature films from various countries of our subcontinent compete for the Coral awards. It is a veteran event that mobilizes the public of the courtyard, while setting its sights on new creators, both local and international.

Also in December we will have the Eyeife Electronic Music Festival, which will take place from 9 to 12 and celebrates its fifth edition online as in the previous installment.

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