Colombian music icons Aterciopelados will perform a special concert at the United Nations General Assembly Hall on October 23rd as part of “United Nations Day.” The United Nations and non-profit organization Culture Project present a “Tribute To Peacekeeping” concert as Aterciopelados will join artists like Harry Belafonte, Roberta Flack and Angelique Kidjo to celebrate the anniversary of the 1945 charter of the United Nations. Most recently, Aterciopelados returned home to Bogota after their first-career tour of Australia.
 
Aterciopelados will play several songs at this prestigious concert including their human rights anthem “The Price Of Silence.” The Amnesty International benefit track was re-worked from the Aterciopelados hit “Cancion Protesta,” originally off their Latin Grammy-winning album ‘Oye.’ “The Price of Silence” was released last winter by Nacional Records, celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The song’s music video was virtually simulated in the U.N. Assembly Hall and features Aterciopelados with artists like Julieta Venegas, Stephen Marley and Natalie Merchant.
  
Aterciopelados’ latest album ‘Rio’ finds the band aggressively building upon the creative momentum of ‘Oye’, the highly-praised album that won them a Latin GRAMMY, Premio Lo Nuestro and several other prestigious awards. SPIN said that ‘Rio’ projects “unflappable confidence” along with“polished-yet-punchy rock on their addictive seventh album.”
 
‘Rio’is evidence that, as VIBE put it, “For Aterciopelados, maturity has become a form of liberation.”The album was recorded in the band’s hometown of Bogotá and mixed by Héctor Castillo (Brazilian Girls, David Bowie, Gustavo Cerati) in New York City. It is an impassioned, socially conscious record with the group’s signature organic rock sound.
 
The album’s opener is the title track, a call to action that finds Aterciopelados at a new level of creativity and musicality. It coincides with a proposed Colombian constitutional referendum that declares a citizen’s right to clean drinking water is a basic human right.

“When I was growing up, the Bogotá River was considered a mythic and iconic place, and now it’s a tiny stream,” says singer Andrea Echeverri. “Musically and lyrically, the track ‘Rio’ is unlike any previous Aterciopelados song. I’m even singing in a different way than in the past. With this one, we reached an entirely new place.”
 
On “Bandera” (“Flag”), Aterciopelados speak out on immigration, another issue close to home. The song’s chorus is “Que quien es usted/Que donde nació/Entonces no puede entrar a esta nación” (simply: “Who are you?/Where were you born?/Therefore you can’t enter this country”). “We have toured across the world many times, yet every time, certain countries give us so much trouble when entering,” Echeverri explains. “My problems with traveling are so small compared to others across the world but I thought I could give all these people a voice.”
 
The longtime creative relationship between Echeverri and Buitrago proves to be the source for the Aterciopelados’ musical genius. “We have had quite a musical career, which has evolved over the years through our own identity search and experimentation, finding our own sound,” Echeverri says. “I do some things, like writing the songs and he does the other things, such as producing and imagining the musical vision for the song. We really complement each other musically in a way that works. And more important than anything, we have love and respect for each other.”

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