Cumbia Chicharra (France/Chile) drives cumbia on its own terms: forceful, exploratory, finely tuned. A matrix pulling in cumbia and South American traditions, plena, afrobeat, dub, funk, hip hop, Balkan colours, electronics.
The fusion lands with precision: a jubilant, explosive field anchored by the steady pulse of cumbia. Across five albums, the eight-piece ensemble has become one of the key families of Afro-Latin music in Europe.
After more than fifteen years moving between stages and studios, Cumbia Chicharra releases its fifth album, Quinto Mundo, in autumn 2025. Eight long-standing musicians playing what they choose, in the present moment. Recorded without embellishment near Marseille, performed live, mixed collectively on site with the craftsmen of Studio K. Eight new compositions and a trance-driven reimagining of Simón Díaz’s “Tonada de luna llena”.
Quinto Mundo proposes a fifth world, a musical sphere. A maelstrom of influences. A zone at the edge of dream (Sueño de Domingo, Yacumama), steeped in poetry and contemplation (Tonada de luna llena). A shared space woven from interaction and small gestures (El gusto, Lunatica, Le train de Toulouse), marked by struggle and resolve (El estallido), carried by love in motion (Esa manera, La chica que no te deja dormir).
In this fifth world, everything flows: Colombian ternary percussion opening to the pull of an oriental synthesiser (Tonada de luna llena), the afrobeat current resonating all the way to Chile’s barricades (El estallido), a cumbia accordion saluting Colombian maestros and maestras (El gusto) evoking Marseille’s streets, a psychedelic cha-cha-cha (La chica que no te deja dormir) drifting towards Jamaica and delirium.
“Viejo me voy, ya te quiero tanto” (Lunatica).
Movement as principle; stillness avoided. Cumbia Chicharra functions like this. Quinto Mundo: a dancing planet, a world untying its paradoxes, revealing itself as a vast family of sounds.
1. Sueño de Domingo
2. El Gusto
3. Lunática
4. Estallido
5. Yacumamalyrics
6. Tonada de Luna Llena
7. La Chica que no te deja dormir
8. Esa Manera
9. Le Train de Toulouse
