calle mambo

(CL)

Calle Mambo emerged in 2013 on the freezing streets of Munich, when Chilean musicians, including singer Jhon Valle, guitarist Erkki Nylund, Guillaume Laumière on the charango and Jankely Felix on percussion, got together to play on the street. Migrant musicians seeking both a livelihood and a sense of belonging. The name came about as a joke: ‘mambo na calle’, capturing the spontaneous, street-wise spirit that has defined them from the start.

The starting point is the immense richness of Latin American folk music. Not just the most internationally renowned genres, but those that globalisation has pushed to the margins: the huayno of the Peruvian Andes, the Bolivian caporal, the Cuban timba, and the Colombian and Chilean cumbiain their many dialects. It is upon these roots that Calle Mambo fuses electronica, rap and contemporary beats, and the result is what the band has dubbed ‘electro-urban folklor’: a language that bridges generations without betraying any of them.

Inspired by pioneers such as Celso Piña, who revolutionised cumbia with hip-hop and rock energy, they have recorded albums such as their 2015 self-titled album, Electro Pachamámico (2020) and the recent Retumba la Tierra(2025).

Their instrumental arsenal is, in itself, a statement of intent. On stage, Calle Mambo plays over ten instruments, including the quena, quenacho, charango, ronroco, zampoña, Colombian gaita, Venezuelan cuatro, tiple, timbales, synthesizers and electronic percussion. Each track is a journey that begins in the Andes and ends on the dance floor. The lyrics are every bit as powerful as the sound. They speak of forced migration, the destruction of ecosystems, oppression and resilience.

Calle Mambo arrive at MED with the vigour of a band on a continuous tour and with the most mature repertoire of their career, with the energy of those who feel an urgency to communicate not just rhythms, but memories, territories and identities that resist oblivion.