INKAMERICA Columbia - Andes Music
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Music from the Andes
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8 October 2007 - I accidently found out that InkAmerica is available on iTunes today. I was moving my active Windows environment to a new computer I call amber and updated Winamp. It had a playlist of InkAmerica. I did a web search and found a reference to their album on iTunes. I am in the process of downloading it. For anybody that likes Inca or Andes music, InkAmerica makes for very pleasant listening. I first encountered them on the old mp3.com web site. I have wanted a CD by them for many years. The CD that I am downloading from iTunes was recorded in 2001. I captured some images from mp3.com and created this poor fan page.
I found a site called World Discoveries. They have a Latin Issue that contains a list of sites about Andean music. The World Discoveries link will take you directly to the Latin Issue. It was on the Andean section that I found a site called GoinNative that sells INKAmerica. The current album is self titled and the cover art is
If you click the image, you will go to the InkAmerica site on GoinNative. They are also available on iTunes where they were in 44th place as I wrote this update. I don't know which list it is on because very little is in English.
You can also try using Google and see what is current. There are a lot of sites with "inkamerica" in them and most of the references are to the "Ink America" web site. What I found was if you add "-inkamerica.com" to your search, you will eliminate many of the references to the ink jet site.
There is a musical group in Bogota, Columbia, South America that I encountered some time ago. They have produced two CD-ROMs called "Quimera" and "Trocitos de Esperanza". They have a following in Europe and mostly perform for companies, schools, and universities. If you had done a web search at some point in the past, you would have found their name associated with events mostly in Columbia, South America.They fall into MP3's Latin America Folklore Traditional category and also into the South/Central American category. Unfortunately, since then, they have basically disappeared from the Internet. They use the name "Inkamerica (Columbia)", which would probably be referred to in English as "Inca America". As is frequently true in the entertainment industry, someone else had registered the name "Inkamerica".
One of the reasons I started this page is because I thought they needed Internet coverage. You should be able to do a web search on "inkamerica", "inca music", "inka música", and etc., and find their kind of "música de andean". I follow how often Google and others parse my web site and decided to setup this web page. I did a web search recently on "inkamerica" and found that someone has reserved the domain name "inkamerica.com". So, I am thinking that some one finally recognized the need and is doing something about it. If the group Inkamerica owns the domain name, this web page will become a commentary and a pointer to their web page. It is disappointment time. The domain name is owned by some people who want to Ink America and sell "Wholesale Ink".
There are 4 band members. Diego Alexander Pulido plays the small guitar, percussion, wind instruments and is the soprano. Claudia Medina Ballesteros plays the violin, percussion, and sings chorus. Orlando Medina Ballesteros plays the Indian flute (quena), panpipes (zampoña), and the keyed flute. He sings as the lead voice. Felipe Mamani plays the guitar and is 2nd voice. The images are all credit Orlando Medina.
You might be asking at this point what is the purpose of this web page. It is for artists that I do not basically understand. Well, they were so pleasant to listen to that I wanted an easy way back to them. If you are reading this, you are curious about what I listen to. If you are also curious, you will have to do a web search because mp3.com no longer exists. I hope they come up with their own web site like Cholo did.
You might also be curious how I found them. It was an accident, of course, how else would I come across a group that has an accumulated playing history of 1711 times on mp3.com. I should have added 25 or so plays to the total but nothing has showed up. One of the features of an artists web page on mp3.com is the other local artists menu function. It all began when I encountered Cholo's web page and it began with MP3's payola promotional feature. I eventually looked at other artists located around Bogota, Columbia and found Inkamerica. One of Inkamerica's less played songs was "Ojos Azules" or blue eyes. This caught my attention because all but one of my friends born in Latin American have brown eyes and I have blue eyes. Then, I listened to their music and "Ojos Azules" had this kind of Native American dance rhythm to it using a flute and I was hooked.
The first time any music had this affect on me was during a trip to Yellowstone NP a number of years ago. One of the books stores was playing Robbie Robinson's "Music for Native Americans". The song "Cherokee Morning Song" did this to me. If you have ever seen a moth flying around a bright light, this was me and "Cherokee Morning Song". It was playing every time I went into the store. The problem was that no store in West Yellowstone, Montana had the CD-ROM version of the album in stock. I will not buy a cassette tape any more. I was in agony for the 4 days I stayed in West Yellowstone. I had to walk by the bookstore at least 4 times per day and it was playing most of the time. Once I arrived back home, it seemed like it was months before I found Robbie's album on a CD. Since Robinson was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame, the album was located in the Rock music section. No wonder it was hard to find. You can listen to it on a site with a web page on Robbie Robertson. The songs from Robertson's albums are arranged alphabetically. The group doing the singing is Walela, which consists of Rita Coolidge and other family members.
