LADAMA is a group of four women, virtuosic musicians, and educators — Lara Klaus, Daniela Serna, Mafer Bandola and Sara Lucas—each from a different country and culture of the Americas, who are sisters in song, rhythm and spirit. They use traditional and non-traditional instruments from across the Americas, but with a modern twist, to produce Latin Alternative music.
What does it mean to be a woman today? The new music video for LADAMA’s song, Confesión, asks this question as its members look for answers.
With direction from Bruno Guaraná, art direction by choreographer Beth Gill y camera work by Kevin Bay, the video imagines each in their own environments, isolated in a vacuumed world. If women had to build themselves from nothing what would happen?
LADAMA is an ensemble of women musicians from across the Americas who, as well as performing as a touring band, strive to engage youth in their respective communities in the process of music-making, dancing, composition and audio production through collaboration and performance workshops. They are Mafer Bandola (bandola llanera), Lara Klaus (percussion, drums), Daniela Serna (percussion) and Sara Lucas (voice, guitar). Together they combine the rhythms and traditional instrumentation of frevo and maracatu from Pernambuco, Brazil; joropo songs from the high plains of Venezuela; cumbia, gaita and champeta from the Colombian coast and contemporary strains of American pop, rock and jazz. Members of LADAMA specialize in, among other instruments, the bandola llanera from Venezuela, the tambor alegre from Colombia, and the pandeiro and zabumba from Northeast Brazil. Their performances include original compositions and traditional songs sung in Spanish, Portuguese and English combining disparate elements into a cohesive whole. The result is a sonic experience through which we can view our future as a world that communicates across continents and cultures, with sound and story.
Their self-titled debut album is out now and available via Bandcamp: https://ladama.bandcamp.com/