La Cumbia Chicharra – Quinto Mundo (Music Box Publishing / L’Autre Distribution, 2025
La Cumbia Chicharra, a France-based band deeply influenced by Colombian cumbia, recently released Quinto Mundo (Fifth World). The band will showcase the album on January 9, 2026, at Studio de L’Ermitage in Paris for an official launch concert.
This multinational ensemble features musicians from Chile and France who continue to champion cumbia. At the same time, La Cumbia Chicharra weaves in other world music influences like plena, Afrobeat, dub, and Balkan styles along with electronica and funk.
Quinto Mundo emerged from live sessions recorded near Marseilles and mixed collectively with the Studio K team. The album includes eight original tracks and an interpretation of Simón Díaz’s cherished Venezuelan song “Tonada de luna llena.” Quinto Mundo moves between irresistible dance songs like as “Sueño de Domingo” and “Yacumama,” reflective moments including “Tonada de luna llena,” and songs centered on movement, community, and resolve, among them “El gusto,” “Lunatica,” “Le train de Toulouse,” and “El estallido.” Themes of affection and restlessness surface in “Esa manera” and “La chica que no te deja dormir.”
Listeners encounter Colombian ritmos set against a Middle Eastern synthesizer line in “Tonada de luna llena,” Chilean-inspired urgency within the Afrobeat-driven “El estallido,” and accordion work in “El gusto” that nods to Colombian tradition while echoing Marseille’s streets.
“La chica que no te deja dormir” brings a psychedelic cha-cha-chá inflection that drifts toward Jamaican influence.
The lineup includes Pati Gajardo (vocals), Romain Davidico (vocals, trombone), César Bouteau (congas, tumba, tambor alegre), Olivier Boyer (vocals, guira, campanas, shekere, cymbals), Maxime Marachélian (drums, timbales), Benjamin Charras (bass, guitar), Sébastien Ruiz Levy (flügelhorn, cornet), and François Escojido (keyboards, accordion).
The band describes Quinto Mundo as a vibrant musical realm characterized by collective energy and wide-ranging influences.
Quinto Mundo artwork by Clémentine Candela and Guillaume Parent.
Buy Quinto Mundo.
Author: Iliana Cabrera
