Sonic Collective New Orleans Garifuna Music WAV

This sample pack features traditional Garifuna ritual and dance music performed by the New Orleans-based ensemble Grupo Yurumeina. The Garifuna are an Afro-Indigenous people from the Caribbean, whose traditions date back hundreds of years to their homeland of Yurumein (also known as the island of St. Vincent). Handmade instruments are central to Garifuna music, including drums, shakers, guiros, and claves, often created from conches, turtle shells, tree trunks, hollowed gourds, and other natural materials. Garifuna music is a rich synthesis of West African and indigenous Latin American rhythms and vocal traditions, connecting communities with their ancestors and sacralizing their ceremonies.

The music of the Dugu ceremony and Máscaro dance are featured prominently in this set of samples — Dügü is the music associated with the Garifuna healing ceremony, which often calls on the spirits of the ancestors to cure the sick and bring balance to a community. A buyei leads this ritual, using maraca playing and chanting to heal ailments and connect with the spirit world. Máscaro is a masked dance of resistance, alluding to the history of invaders trying to remove the Garifuna from their land. The aggressive rhythms of Máscaro are danced competitively, with each dancer trying to outperform the last, and their rhythmic outbursts and sporadic variations are captured here. The recordings in this pack were performed by Pedro Guity, Wilmer Ruiz, Edil Ávila, and Jeremy Thal, and recorded at Marigny Studios in New Orleans.

Produced by Found Sound Nation
Edited and Mixed by Christopher Botta