Book / CD "Una historia americana" - released on February 1, 2025
Limited edition, 50 pages illustrated with paintings by Sophie Bonnin, song lyrics in Spanish and French, written by poets Patricio Sanchez, Eduardo Berti, academics Isabelle Bleton and Sandra Hernandez and musician composer Javier Lazo.
CD "Una historia americana" - official release on September 1, 2025
Single CD, 4-page booklet, published and distributed by Frémeaux Associés.
"Una historia americana" is a train that we take and that winds, like the Andean roads, through South American cultural, humanist and innovative landscapes. "An American story", among dozens of others, but very particular: that of authors who through their work (songs, poetry, music, writing) helped entire peoples to survive the unthinkable in a dynamic of resistance, resilience, hopes and profound moments of unity around rhythmic and joyful music, sometimes deep and serious. Vidala has chosen to arrange the chosen songs in a resolutely modern way. The bootleneck rubs shoulders with the traditional Argentine bombo, the Batà de Cuba drums are invited into Argentine or Chilean songs as well as a work of vertical arrangement for the voices and polyrhythms on the percussions.
In the carriages of his train, the Western influence of the "Spanish canarios" of the 17th century, the Andean melodies with their pentatonic scales, or the major contribution of African rhythms and melodies, which make up this music, the most mixed in the world, are present. The music remains after the concert, often heady, emotion where everyone finds their place, and which allows us to move forward together towards better days.
Vidala Discography
The 2nd album "Cantando al sol" released on February 12, 2021 (production C'est Pas Des Manières / Inouîe Distribution)
The choice of the repertoire of "Cantando al sol" was made naturally, as the themes developed in the Nueva Canción resonate today completely with the situation we are experiencing in the 21st century . Thus, more than ever, the economy induces an increasingly unequal society in terms of the distribution of wealth, whether socially or geographically. The planet has never been so badly managed, thus mortgaging the future of the next generations, and authoritarian temptations have dramatically developed in recent years in many countries, calling into question fundamental rights, education, culture and human rights.
Vidala's work in this new album also revolves around the place of women in the struggle for fundamental rights . Thus, through the setting to music of a poem by Alfonsina Storni, who died in 1938 well before the beginnings of the movement, we can perceive feminism, and the notion of equality and gender specificity present in the songs and the movement, but also, Chabuca Granda (Peru), or Violeta Parra (Chile) or María Elena Walsh (Argentina), who through their songs gave a decisive place to women in art, culture, political commitment and the fight for democracy in Latin America.
Vidala's musical work is based on an interpretation as well as personal musical arrangements of the songs presented in the album "Cantando al sol". Thus, if the background of traditional musical forms is there, the arrangements allow us to mix a chacarera rhythm with a Cuban bembé (La Maza), or to interpret "La Vidala del Adiós" by Atahualpa Yupanqui in a very modern way with bootle neck guitars and resolutely figurative percussions (bowls, cymbals, sound effects), or to appropriate a song by Violeta Parra with a personal and original harmonization ("Arriba quemando el sol"), or to bounce off the text "Manifiesto" by Víctor Jara, with a text in French (Nueva Canción).
Polyrhythms, harmonic explorations and melodic developments around the original themes of the songs, while remaining as close as possible to the meaning and emotion that the authors have transmitted to us, remain the basis of the musical work and interpretation in the album "Cantando al sol" which takes its name from a song by María Elena Walsh: "Como la cigarra".
VIDALA's first album was released in 2015 , produced by the independent label C'est Pas Des Manières. It contains 13 tracks:
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Te recuerdo Amanda (Víctor Jara - Chile)
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Los hermanos (Atahualpa Yupanqui / Pablo del Cerro - Argentina)
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Alfonsina y el mar (Félix Luna / Ariel Ramírez - Argentina)
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El poeta (Atahualpa Yupanqui - Argentina)
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El payandé (Vicente Holguín - Colombia / Luis E. Albertini - Peru)
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As a free pájaro (Adela Gleijer / Diana Reches - Uruguay)
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To desalambrar (Daniel Viglietti - Uruguay)
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Punay (Atahualpa Yupanqui - Argentina)
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Llegó con tres heridas (Miguel Hernández - Spain /Joan Manuel Serrat)
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Dos gardenias (Isolina Carrillo - Cuba)
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Of colors (traditional)
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Gracias a la vida (Violeta Parra - Chile)
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Vidala para mi sombra (Julio Santos Espinosa - Argentina)
The booklet has been the subject of particularly meticulous work of translation into French with the help of several personalities from the different countries and cultures covered in order to preserve the meaning and intention of each word of the authors.