Various
Ecuatoriana – El Universo Paralelo de Polibio Mayorga 1969-1981
Analog Africa
7 April 2023
For their latest release, Ecuatoriana – El Universo Paralelo de Polibio Mayorga 1969-1981, the label’s 37th compilation, Analog Africa return to South America, more specifically Quito, the capital of Ecuador, to bring us more breathtaking music, this time from the titular Polibio Mayorga, one of the country’s musical pioneers and legends, whose rise to fame can be traced to the synchronicity of several contributory factors.
Born in 1944 and brought up immersed in the sounds, rhythms and culture of the Izamba and Chibuelo in Chisalata (Atahualpa), some 160 km south of Quito, Polibio was greatly influenced by the ‘space race’ of the 50s and 60s, and its knock-on effect on the world’s music industry as the scramble to create instruments and devices capable of replicating imaginary interplanetary and otherwordly sounds began.
Within Ecuador, the production of these synthesised space effects coincided with a migration of workers and musicians leaving the countryside to seek work in cities such as Quito and Guayaquil. Bringing with them Andean melodies, Columbian rhythms gleaned from the radio waves, the new, tropical electronic sounds and lyrics reflecting the hardships endured by the migrant workers, Andean Cumbia was born, and Polbio Mayorga was a visionary, leading exponent of this new genre.
Having fallen in love with both Columbian Porro and Cumbia, he moved to Quito, and the accordion became his main instrument as he tried to learn the repertoire of his heroes, Los Locos del Ritmo. Between 1966 and 1969, however, having formed his own quintet, The Orquestra Casino, and having had a major hit in 1967, he bought a Hammond and became a keyboard player. In 1969 he was invited to join his aforementioned heroes, and he stayed with them until 1972, once again playing the accordion. During this time, the band was also joined by legendary saxophonist Olmedo Torres, with whom Polibio later recorded many of his hits, several of which appear on this compilation.
1973 saw him leave the band to join Fabrica De Discos SA (Fadisa), where, after a year working as both solo musician and songwriter, he became musical director, composing and arranging hits with Torres, both for themselves and other artists, for over a decade, on the stellar Fadisa imprint, Rondador, including perhaps his major album, La Farra Está Aquí, with its innovative use of Moog synthesiser.
Polibio saw his mission as using the latest electronic instruments and technologies, including the Moog synthesiser, to update the ancestral Albazo, Huayaynito and Sanjuanito melodies and rhythms of his region. His music, indeed any music related to Cumbia, however, was not universally well-received, certainly amongst the existing mainstream performers, for whom music rooted in rural life was treated with disdain and the derisory term of chiceros, derived from the corn beer popular with the migrants. It was, however, extremely popular with the montubios (working classes), and despite often avant-garde touches, his fusion of traditional tunes and cumbia rhythms were constantly broadcast by Cosmopolita and Maranon de Quito, the two main radio stations in the capital, and his music is credited with helping to revive the country’s flagging music industry.
Such was his success that there were complaints that too many of Ecuador’s hits were by Polibio Mayorga, and, as a result, he started to use a range of pseudonyms. Junior Y Su Equipo was one such that he employed from 1979-1984. This name may register with regular Folk Radio readers, as this band also featured on the Saturno 2000 – La Rebajada de Los Sonideros 1962 – 1983 album reviewed here, where three of their Cumbia tracks on this Brazilian compilation were given the rebajada (slowed-down) treatment. On this release, however, they feature only once, opening the album with America Índia, a Huaynito instrumental released in 1979, from the best-selling Ritmo, Vino y Amor LP.
The three tracks credited to Mayorga as a solo artist all reflect the spacy, electronic influence, with the high-pitched squonky keys and female vocals of Pañuelo De Seda, the jaunty Ferrocarril creating a carnival atmosphere and second single Altas Horas, a glorious vibraphone Albazo instrumental, at times sounding like cosmic pan-pipes, with a rhythm that invites a move to the dancefloor.
His time with Los Locos Del Ritmo is represented by the imperious, infectious accordion-led Llorona, and his collaboration with Olmedo Torres warrants two tracks, Mi Pais and Unita Mas, both of which not only show off the immaculate saxophone skills of Torres but also the quality of Mayorga’s arrangements.
The two offerings credited to Orti, Mayorga y Chiriboga, Muñequita Blanca, and Di Que Me Amas define perfectly the celestial, electronic, psychedelic, cumbia mix, as does the wired, Don Alfoncito from Olmedo Torres y Los Gatos with their trademark wristcutter guitar.
The track with Radio Exito’s requinto player, Eduardo ‘Chocolate’ Morales, Muevase Vecina, again delivers woozy, extra-terrestrial synth sounds over a repetitive rhythm that would not be out of place as a soundtrack to a spaghetti western, whilst La Perra Vida from Conjunto La Jorga, the group named after the female backing vocalists of the Fadisa record company who provide vocals on the track, (jorga describing the people from the same barrio or a group of close friends), is pure pop-kitsch.
Polibio also collaborated with another saxophonist, Alcidiades Cilio, a master of bomba, a rhythm brought to Ecuador by enslaved Africans. On this release, both offerings from Alcibiades y Su Banda, Haciendo Bomba and Bomba de Pobres, feature this energetic rhythm, but the blending with the electronic blips and squiggles makes for a remarkably unique sound.
A similar sonic landscape is presented on the two pieces accredited to Mayorga and his own band, Polibio Mayorga y Su Conjunto. The scratchy noodlings of Culebrita Dormida fascinate, with album closer Cumbia Totorana sounding like the dazzling musical outcome of a Buena Vista Social Club/BBC Radiophonic Workshop coalescence.
Whilst he has always shunned the ‘tropical psychedelia’ label by which his music is often described, there can be no doubt that Polibio Mayorga is very much at the forefront of both tropical and early psychedelic, electronic/synthesised music. The music presented on Ecuatoriana – El Universo Paralelo de Polibio Mayorga transports the listener to a parallel universe and confirms Polibio Mayorga as a legendary icon of Ecuadorian music.