Gwandena by TIMPANA

On Gwandena, the Bolivian artist TIMPANA maps out a metaphysical journey across her home country, and through various states of being. Indigenous and African instrumentation meet electronic drums and synths on an album that veers between moments of slowly-revealing transcendence and urgent, rhythmic cries as the world appears different to how we ever imagined it.

TIMPANA began as a duo, but has been the solo project of artist, performer and musician Alejandra Lanza for over 10 years. Gwandena is the first solo album in this iteration, and sees Lanza working with fellow Bolivian producer Chuntu, as well as fellow masters of Afro-Andean wind and percussion instruments. Together they have created a work that is complex in both its musical construction – being that it references and merges rhythms and cadences from the Andes, Amazon and Afro-Latin traditions – and in its narrative.

Gwandena tells the story of Talina, a young girl on a journey of self-knowledge. She is guided by a hummingbird called Jovi and must come face-to-face with herself, but not in a way she ever planned. The story begins with “Jovi”, introducing her hummingbird guide on a powerful track adorned with a multitude of Andean influences (pounding wankara drum, ronroco strums and wind instruments such as the quena). “Zayanqu” is the track when Talina realises she is more powerful than she ever imagined. Sung in Quechua, the word “zayanqu” is a shot of lightning. With the sound of the electronic elements now turned up fast, it’s clear that all is not as it seems, especially now that Jovi is dead. On the following track, “Estrella Brillosa” she travels to the centre of the earth to confront her fears, finding spiritual guides that through a Guaraní chant give her strength.

Discussing the use of Quechua and Guaraní, as well as Spanish, lyrics in the songs Lanza explains that their use comes from a tradition of telling myths and legends in these languages, that comes from her ancestors: “I found that the mystical and the mysterious are combined in such a way in these languages that the characters of Gwandena are born and are found there among dreams, rituals, the sacred and the profane. The languages I use, apart from the fascinating sound that I experience when singing them, come out of a desire that they last and not be lost. When I’m singing them it takes takes me to another time, to the nostalgia of the beginning of all things.”

As for Talina, she meets her great-grandmother, Gwandena, on the title track, a torrent of Afro-Amazonian-Andean rhythms that builds and builds and builds. After Gwandena reveals that she is the same being as Talina, she teaches her how to heal using plants, leading to the resurrection of Jovi on “Pájaro”. It’s a tale not for the faint-hearted but teaches us a lot about the cyclical nature of existence, with death always followed by rebirth, and how Bolivia’s native peoples place myths, rituals, dreams and reality on an equal footing. “Amayu” sees Talina and Jovi combine, its story stemming from a Guaraní legend of the hummingbird: “when someone dies, their soul flies to hide in a flower, until a hummingbird arrives to guide it to its destination”, says Lanza.

The final track is “Espejo”, in which Lanza’s voice seems to rise to another plane of existence – the guiding light throughout the whole album, here her voice sounds otherworldly, especially with the simple accompaniment of a hand drum, solitary synth and the spell-binding backing voices. Lanza describes it as a “song of love, an awakening in the reflection [espejo translates as mirror] of the other… it is everything.” Inspired by the theory of evolution from Theosophy, Talina, Jovi and Gwandena become the same being, a being that is part of, and one, with the universe.

TIMPANA and Gwandena’s producer, Chuntu, were both featured in Bandcamp’s spotlight on Bolivian music earlier this year as artists pivotal in contributing to and promoting “Bolivia’s rich artistic universe”, and Gwandena is their finest statement of intent yet, an album that draws from Bolivia’s myriad traditions and belief systems, with a vocal performance that is sure to earn Lanza plaudits as one of Latin America’s finest singers and interpreters. It’s also an album that can hold its own against the best folktronica and other contemporary iterations of pan-Latin identity being made right now.

TIMPANA creates her own sound based on native vocal techniques from Bolivia and the world.

Since 2009 with her debut album Alma Perdida she has come with a world music influence that now with Gwandena she experiments even more with electronic elements and sounds, indigenous instruments, native songs in Spanish, Quechua and Guarani, with a strong Afro Andean Amazonian influence.

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