Aurelio Martinez Launches Landini in Belize
Opening tonight at the Bliss, Landini, a paranda album by world renowned Garifuna artist, Aurelio Martinez will be launched. Since September, Martinez along with his team from Stone Tree Records, Ivan Duran, have been in Europe and the U.S. and Canada to introduce the album to international audiences. Tonight, they are back in Belize to launch Landini locally. The twelve-song release is very melodic and features mid-tempo tracks that speak to Martinez’s experience growing up in the coastal Honduran village of Plapaya. News Five spoke today to Martinez and Stone Tree Records’ Ivan Duran on the newest project to keep the intangible culture of the Garifuna people alive.
Ivan Duran, Stone Tree Records
Ivan Duran
“It’s a very special album; it is Aurelio going back to his old roots in the small village of Plapaya where he grew up in the coast of Honduras and it is songs that he learned from his mom, from his dad…playing with his uncles. [It’s] a very special project, very close to his heart and a lot of fans of Garifuna-soul music will really love this album because there is definitely a connection there with the paranda dah Aurelio is known for. The entire album was recorded in Benque where our studio is located. We spent a few weeks there just playing around…everybody in the same room figuring out the songs and recording them. And then Al Obando and myself spent a few months working with the tracks, doing some post production, mixing and so on. So it took us about a year and half more or less to get it completed and finally it was released this year and we are very happy to release it now in Belize where it all started.”
Aurelio Martinez
Aurelio Martinez, Artist
“We started to do this project here, international project for the Garifuna music…we got Johnny Aranda, Paul Nabor, Andy Palacio and when we start to do this work, we have everybody together. We miss a lot of people, but we got to keep alive this kind of music because you know we don’t have many Garifuna star traveling around the world bringing this music to people. But I’m very happy to be here in Belize to launch my new album, Landini album.”
Duane Moody
“Tell us about the one that you found yourself drawn to specifically that you like the most.”
Aurelio Martinez
“Each one (laughs), everyone. I feel this album like the same…I feel like it is just one album because the thing with this album is that it reflects the feeling in my house. My mom represents this album. My mother, she is the best mentor in my life. She inspired to me this album. I dedicate this album to my mom because this album is like when you come to my mom’s house, you feel this album right there. We play this music every day.”
Ivan Duran
“It’s been almost a fifteen year journey with Aurelio, with Andy, with Nabor, the Garifuna Collective, the Umalali singers and they have been representing Garifuna culture in Central America and around the world for the last decade. This is just one more stone and one more step forward in making this music known around the world and we are very pleased.”
As we said, the album was released in Europe and North America in September and since then, it got to the number one spot in the world music charts in October. This week, it has also been included in the top ten list of albums of the year in the world music category. A concert will also be held on Saturday in Orange Walk.
