Pernett

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Pernett

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Citing Joe Arroyo and Toto La Momposina as influences, Pernett also enjoys Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers and Mari Boine. Looking outward and forward doesn’t mean he is unfamiliar with the roots of Colombian music, and especially the Afro-Colombian rhythms of the Atlantic coast. Pernett grew up playing in the Barranquilla carnival as part of his father’s traditional group, the Comparsa Cipote Garabato, and studied for many years with percussionist and singer Paulino ‘Batata’ Salgado – a giant of Colombian Caribbean music. Pernett’s inspiration is in those core Afro-Colombian rhythms – mapalé, puya, currulao, cumbia, bullerengue, chandé – which he plays with electronica, dub and pop, a process he refuses to call ‘fusion’: “I don’t say that I make fusion music, that’s a very 1980s concept. I say that what I do is progressive folklore – because it is folklore made in a new era. When I write a song I do it with a guitar and it’s based on traditional Latin or Caribbean rhythms. Then I go to the studio and record the drums, vocals and acoustic instruments with real musicians. So we use traditional and contemporary ways.”

Back as a teenager, when he started his first band Waga, Pernett played all over the Atlantic coastal region at rave festivals, where he earned his moniker ‘Caribbean Raver’. In 2000 he formed Pernett & The Caribbean Ravers releasing ‘Musica Pa Pick Up’ in 2003, an EP produced by Felipe Alvarez (Shakira) and mixed by Richard Blair of Sidestepper. Pick Up is the Colombian version of a sound system, and Pernett is as happy releasing a torrent of dub effects as he is playing the gaita (wooden Colombian flute). His first full album Cumbia Galáctica was released on Polen in 2007 and his next album Arbol is set for release in 2009.

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