“Agua Dulce” is a collaboration project by Berlin-based artists Alejandra Cárdenas (aka Ale Hop) and Laura Robles, and also the name of the most popular beach in Lima, Peru, near where both artists lived during their childhood, houses apart, without ever meeting one another. Years later, the pair joined forces with Robles on a self-built electric cajón and Cárdenas on electric guitar and electronics. Together, they explore rhythmical structures that form the backbone of the complex Afro-Peruvian music and dance traditions – a broad term used for the various musical developments that occurred in the last two centuries at the shores of the Peruvian Pacific. Their music is a radical deconstruction of these rhythms focusing on the cajón, the Peruvian box drum that enslaved peoples made from fruit boxes when Spanish colonizers banned the more familiar foot drum in the 19th century.

Ale Hop (Alejandra Cárdenas) is a Peruvian-born artist. Cárdenas began her career in Lima’s underground music scene in the 2000s. Her work encompasses various formats such as live shows, albums, multimedia artworks and research. Her live performances merge the physical qualities of sound with raw affective states. She builds layers of sound by maneuvering an intricate repertoire of electric guitar techniques to create music of deep intensity. In the past year, she has initiated various collaborative practices, including Agua Dulce with percussionist Laura Robles, radically mutating Afro-Peruvian rhythms, and Near and Remote Activation Practices, with sound artist Tatiana Heuman, which draws inspiration from South American organology and storytelling. She has presented her work at festivals and institutions such as UNSOUND, MUTEK, Sonic Acts, CTM Festival, Taiwan C-LAB, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Somerset House Studios; and released albums on Nyege Nyege, Buh Records, Karlrecords and Superpang.

“There’s heart-thumping tension and catharsis as the musicians aim to reconnect the Peruvian percussion instrument with its slave roots” – THE GUARDIAN

“the results of ‘Agua Dulce’ offer absorbing solutions to contemporary music’s burning question of “where to next?” – BOOMKAT

“nothing short of amazing” – THE WIRE

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