Pacho Apostolo — Wallmapu

Have you ever been on one of those history rides?.  You known the type that you find at historic places of interest such as Rome  or York . You climb on board a open carriage to stand, or sit down in a leisurely rolla-coaster type car, then you go on a trip back in time via recreated smells, sounds &  displays of posed dummies dressed up in costumes of the past. ….well “Wallmapu” is sort of a sonic historic ride for the Mapuche  nation- a group of indigenous inhabitants that have lived for a thousands years in  south-central Chile and south-western Argentina.

Pacho Apostolo is an Patagonia, Argentina based sound artist, musician, radio producer, educator & activist. Ten years ago, Apostolo started to experiment with sound. Combining his own musical creativity with this experimentation led him to develop new formats and textures, which were united over the years into groundbreaking radiophonic projects. Pacho is also very passionate about the Mapuce, and is a longstanding activist working for the rights of these people today.

The single half-an-hour track on offer mixes together jungle, water & wind field recordings with scared drums, tribal instruments( such as  Kull Kull- a cow or ox horn) & chants of the Mapuche people. These are mixed into a audio travel log back through time that takes in warped medieval music, Spanish guitar playing, galloping horses, the sound of trees been sawing, farm animals, chattering in Chilean & Spanish, and all manner of sound matter.  It all makes for effective if little quirky sound adventure.

This release comes in the form of a digital download, and sadly there’s just a fairly scant write-up about the Mapuche history. So really unless you dig around on-line you have to just depend on the audio track it’s self, which at times does seem to become a little too manic & shifting for it’s own good. So all told this is certainly a creative 'n' fairly rewarding sonic ride, I just wish there had been a bit more of a guide to exactly what went on when in the Mapuche’s history, and how it related to what is going on in with in the track.