Producer and guitarist Cory Wong has released a second set of recordings made during his visit to Peru. Peña Volume II continues exploring the African-rooted music of coastal Peru, although he also adds popular pieces that have Andean and Nueva Canción elements, bringing together the African, indigenous and Spanish influences in Peruvian music.
Peña Volume II is available digitally. Wong explains Volume II, “when we got back from Lima last year we sat down and divided up the recordings into two excellent collections that stood well on their own. It actually drove me nuts to hold back some of my favorite recordings for Volume 2. Due to the reception of the first volume, we knew it was time to release the rest of the tracks on this second volume. In fact, I think I may like Volume II a bit more than Volume 1,” concluded Wong.
Musicians on Peña Volume II include Cory Wong (guitar), Sofia Rei Koutsovitis (vocals), Eric Kurimski (guitar), Jorge Roeder (bass), Jorge “Coqui” Perez-Albela (percussion), Hugo Alcazar (percussion), Paloma Godoy (vocals), Chico Chavez (percussion), Andrés Prado (guitar), Alberto Gil (guitar, lead vocals), Larry (percussion, background vocals), Miguel Santos (guitar), Victor León (vocal), and Javier Choy (guitar).
Peña Volume II celebrates the passion and vitality of Peru’s folk dances and melodies. It is a real gift to fans of Afro-Peruvian music.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
Cory Wong has no permission from me or any of the musicians on this compilation to use this recording for sale. This was supposed to be for a documentary about the International Cajon Festival in Lima, Peru and about Afro Peruvian music. I just wanted to make this very clear, as one of the artists in this recording.
I love these recordings! I was fortunate enough to play guitar on this recording and hang out with the Peña crew. perfect selection of songs!
My name is Miguel and I am one of the performers on this record. I’d like to thank you for writing this story. I noticed the above comment from someone claiming to be Sofia Rei. Sofia sings on two of the songs in this album. If that is actually her, she seems pretty upset about something. I can’t speak for all of the 13 musicians on this album (as “sofia” has done above), but I know that I am very happy with the release of the peña albums. When I recorded with Cory, he got permission from myself and the other musicians in the room to release these albums. I’m not really sure why “sofia” is claiming that Mr. Wong never pot permission form me to make these albums.
I still keep in touch with Mr. Wong. I’ll be sure to send him this link to he can address this.
I love the peña albums and am very happy to see someone keeping peruvian music alive on the global stage.
big fan of your blog!
miguel