El Darién, also Darien Gap, is a remote belt of lush tropical rainforest shelter to ten per cent of the world's biodiversity stretching from the easternmost isthmus of Panama to northwestern Colombia.

This territory encompasses a multi-ethnic landscape that brings together the indigenous provinces of Guna Yala, Madugandí, Wargandí, and Emberá-Wounaan, as well as the “negritudes” and “mestizos” in Chocó. Darién was subject to the Colombian Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), which committed assassinations, kidnappings, and human rights violations during their insurgency against the Colombian government. Equally, the region has seen in recent years a human influx from Cuba, Africa, and Asia, whose desperation sends unprepared refugees on perilous journeys to the United States in search of the American dream.

La Madremonte is the guardian of the mountains and jungles, and a wizard of the climate and vegetation. “Madremonte” (2019) aims to facilitate a sonic encounter with the biosphere of an endangered Darién and remind the public that a political-economic system that discards our earthly connection not only threatens the Earth but also our understanding of the most basic living rights.

Field recordings registered in the Indigenous Comarca of Guna Yala as part of La Wayaka Current research program, and along our Darien Gap crossing from La Miel; Panama, to Sasardí Natural Reserve; Colombia. April — May, 2019.