Celebrating 10 Years of Sounds and Colours
To celebrate 10 years of Sounds and Colours we were planning a big party this year. That’s not going to happen any more... but we are launching this fundraiser to make Sounds and Colours an even better resource for cutting-edge Latin American music and culture, and ensure our survival as we battle with a severe drop in advertising revenue.
One of the hardest things about this lockdown has been trying to figure out how life now works while also helping support as many projects as possible. It's been tough, but has made us realise how much Latin artists need media that they can trust and that fully supports their endeavours. It's for that reason that we felt it essential that we carried on with this campaign (which we had been planning since last year) and help ensure that we can continue to support Latin music and culture for another 10 years.
As part of our anniversary celebrations we're releasing two brand new projects, a downloadable compilation (which is OUT NOW) and a brand new book filled with articles and photos documenting Latin culture, which will be released in August 2020. We're selling copies of our compilation and book as part of this fundraiser as well as a collection of amazing perks donated by our friends and supporters, and some extra special items from the Sounds and Colours archives.
Read on to find out more...
Sounds and Colours: 10 Years Compilation
The compilation, Sounds and Colours: 10 Years is available now and features new, rare and unreleased music from Orkesta Mendoza + Mexican Institute of Sounds + Calexico, Kassin, Monte (the new project of Bomba Estereo’s Simón Mejía), Cabruêra, Romperayo, Mȁ̲̠̻ͥ̾ra͔̥̩̾͊̑cuyá͊, Santi & Tuğçe, Numa Gama, Santiago Córdoba, ESDLCP, DJ Mam, NILLO, M. Takara & Carla Boregas (RAKTA), Cineplexx, Kif, Maria Rita Stumpf, Dolli, Sentidor, Savan, Lulina, Tongas & Mates, El Buga, Kumbia Obscura and Pernett.
You can listen to the compilation at Bandcamp and buy it there, or in conjunction with some perks right here.
Sounds and Colours: 10 Years Book
We are also releasing the Sounds and Colours: 10 Years book which will feature 100 pages of brand new content, including the following:
- special reporting on the protests that have engulfed many Latin American countries over the past 12 months (with text and photos from contributors in Bolivia, Chile and Colombia)
- feature on the female producers breaking ground in electronic music in São Paulo
- story on the impact of Mexico City's water crisis and how creativity and culture are being used to find a solution
- an oral history of champeta, as told by the musicians, DJs and important figures who have helped champion the Colombian style since the beginning
- the continuing tales of Brazilian soul legend Tim Maia, with new stories from Allen Thayer, the definitive authority on Maia (and Brazilian funk and soul in general)
- a look back at the work of the influential Bolivian film-maker Jorge Sanjinés and his Grupo Ukamau collective
- when strikes hit Colombia last year many musicians raised their voice in support - we take a look at how musicians played a role in this social movement, and to what end
- a spotlight on the work of some of Bolivia's finest artists, who also share their thoughts on current social disruption in the country
- we take a look at three social activist organisations in Colombia empowering young Colombians, who increasingly feel marginalised by society, through culture
- plus, a retrospective of the best Latin films, books and music that have been released over Sounds and Colours' 10 years of existence
What We Need
We are looking to generate £5,000 to make the following happen:
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improve our website – a long-overdue update to create the ultimate resource for Latin American music and culture. We will make content easier to find, fix errors and improve the look – we’ve already got some very nice original illustrations from Lee Hodges to help in that department. There are thousands of articles, including important research into Latin culture on our site, but it's not easy to find. We need to resolve that. We are looking for a budget of £1,200 to get this update over the line.
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publish 10th Anniversary book - this campaign is partly a pre-order for our Sounds and Colours: 10 Years book, for which we will be looking to put £2,000 towards the cost of printing the book and paying our writing team
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launch a membership scheme – to be able to offer premium content (i.e. podcasts, in-depth research articles, online film screenings) we will need a steady flow of income and are proposing a membership scheme to pay for that content. More details will be announced soon, but our plan requires a budget for initial costs as we look to build our subscribers. We are therefore planning to generate a £1,000 initial budget to subsidise the project in its early stages. As an added bonus of this campaign everyone who buys any perk will get a month’s subscription for free.
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keep running Sounds and Colours as we are – compensating for the drop in advertising revenue, a modest budget of £800 will help us to keep the website running at moderate speed for the following months as we wait for the live events, whose advertising we rely on, to come back into our lives
What You Get
There is much on offer. As well as being able to buy the Sounds and Colours: 10 Years compilation, and pre-order the 10 Years Book, we are also selling donations very generously given to us by:
- Mr Bongo Records
- Mais Um Discos
- And Other Stories
- Songlines
- NYC Trust
- ZZK Records
- Peace & Rhythm
- Discos Rolas
- Movimientos
- Soundway Records
- Shika Shika
- El Palmas Music
- Olindo Records
- LAB (Latin America Bureau)
- Sterns Music
- Far Out Recordings
- Dengue Dengue Dengue!
- Mirjam Wirz
- Chhoti Maa
Take a look at just some of these perks below (these are all available in the various bundles we're offering):
As well as items from the Sounds and Colours Shop, and a few choice vinyl items from the record collection of our editor, Russell Slater.
Everyone who buys a perk will additionally be given one months' free membership to the Sounds and Colours Membership Scheme when it launches later this year.