Alright then, Shellshock played the festival on Friday and we had a great time, here are some video grabs from our performance-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/howlingearth/
We then had the great pleasure of seeing Fishbone, Mars Volta, Ratty Scurvics, Reverend Horton Heat and many others.
Should have some video up shortly, and also some more Howling Earth stuff in the next few weeks-

El Recorrido performed by the Casa de Cultura, Barinas,Vene zuela



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Aguas Claras

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Shot in Copacabana, Bolivia on the shores of Lake Titicaca in front of an ancient Incan Astronomical observatory by great local group Duo Titicaca. Check out more videos by Clicking Here. This Dvd will be available in our Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia compilation coming out soon. For Pre-orders click here.

Occasionally i will be going a little back in time with the project if i come across some really cool places or events like this one. The "Festival de la Virgen" in the town of Illuman (very small pueblito near Otavalo) in northern Ecuador takes place toward the end of September and is one you won't find advertised in Lonely Planet. We just happend to talk to a guy in Otavalo the day of the festival and stumbled into this amazing event with no idea what to expect.
1)we were the only gringos there. very cool.
2)there was an abundance of hot aguardiente. very cool.
3)they had erected these massive towers loaded with fireworks under which people danced insanely when set off.
Here's some pics-


pics courtesy of Blogger and Howling Earth

"Poguta Powoewa Nau" performed by indigineous Ticuna tribe "Banda Cultural Aitcha," in Umariasu(sp), Brazil, located near Tabatinga and Leticia, Colombia. Very interesting mix of modern electronics and traditional instrumentation and sound.

Brazilian Amazon Jungle music video



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Barinas and Ciudad Bolivar

Stopped in Barinas for a few days and recorded some great Joropo Llanera music with some amazing musicians. Barinas is true "Cowboy" country and the beginning of a huge section of Venezuela known as Los Llanos.

Right now we´re hanging in Ciudad Bolivar, waiting to catch the 7pm bus for Santa Elena which is at the Brazilian border, then onto Manaus in Las Amazonas. If you´re ever in Ciudad Bolivar make sure to stay at Posada Don Carlos, one of the best posadas i´ve ever been to, great rooms, free internet, kitchen, very helpful staff, just all around cool scene.

Been here in Merida, Venezuela for the last week, caught up with Carlos at the university of music to sort out the proper credits for the songs we recorded a year and a half ago- check em here listed as the Merida groups- Musicians

Recorded some great music yesterday at a restaurant on the outskirts of the city center next to a beautiful park. These guys, ranging in age from 50 to 90 years old play at this restaurant every Sunday with a repetoire of styles including Vals (waltz), joropo, bambuco and more....very cool stuff, should be available on the site in a month or two. Howling Earth

Right now hanging in Barquisimeto which is considered the beginning or end of the Andes mountains depending on who you talk to, recording "música del estado lara," or music from the state of Lara.We have recorded a few groups and variations of groups in one night at a place i can´t remember the name of right now (will correct later) but it was generally pretty cool. Had a few sound problems but we should be able to get 4 or 5 songs posted in the next few weeks or so.

Also had a good session with Ivan Canela and his group (his father Pablo was a famous musician in this region) and got an interesting interview as well. He runs a few music stores in town and they make alot of their own instruments as well. Hell of a nice guy too-

This is a variation of llanera music which predominately exists in this region and throughout the Los Llanos area. The instruments typically include mixes of cuatro, violin, mandolin, cello, harp, tambores, guitar and bass.

Also recorded a superb guitarist Andres, who plays Venezuelan classical music for guitar. We will probably record him again and two other groups before we make our way to Merida.

Be sure to check out the What´s New page on Howling Earth for the latest videos and short documentaries.

March - April 2007 Caracas, Venezuela

On the road again with a quick stop in Bogota to do some upgrades on the website, then off to Caracas to meet up with Justin and Andrea. We checked out some beach action and spent a day in the picturesque town of El Hatillo where we did an impromptu recording (using Justin's still camera in video mode- aka low quality) of a group of  street musicians playing "Musica Llanera" which is ranchero music from the plains of Los Llanos in Venezuela.

We plan on doing some proper recordings of this group in a few days, then off to El Choroni on the coast for the"Semana Santa" (week of saints) festival to record some Tambore music.

Right now we are staying with a cool and crazy dude called Mario whose actual name is Alejandro, a writer who penned a book called "El Eterno Caminante" (The Eternal Walk) about his adventures across the entire continent of South America. He uses straight guerilla style marketing going from book store to book store to get shops to carry his novel which usually ends up in display in one of the store windows. His place in San Antonio near Caracas has an amazing history. He originally put down 10% on the condo and it turns out the Construction company re-sold all of the places many times over and split town without quite completing the structure. So many of the people moved in anyway and started finishing their condos when the police came in and kicked them out. They then went to the President who with the help of the national guard got the people back into their places and is allowing them to stay there. So it could mean that Mario may only have to pay the original 10% for the entire condo! Talk about luck man. The only slight draw back right now is that they have limited water, running 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night but they hope to have that rectified soon.