Mercendes Peon

Mercedes Peón is considered to be one of the most charismatic women of the current world music circuit. At the age of 13, when she heard some women singing on the Costa da Morte, she was fascinated by the playing of the tambourine and the singing of the ribeirana. This triggered a desire to collect the songs, dances, stories and experiences of her village’s people. An intense compilation began. She transmitted all this knowledge to schools, Galicia Television and in Universities such as La Sorbonne, Oporto, Wales etc.

The variety of her compositions that start from the polyrhythm under the gaze of the most ancestral rhythms, culminate in eclectic and blatantly vibrant themes. Her wide repertoire, the spell and the energy that seizes each of her performances, make this woman a sure bet for the continuity of the ethnocontemporaneous scene in Europe. After expanding the tradition for more than 25 years, in 2000 she recorded her first album called Isué. She expressed herself free of clichés and expanded internationally without support from the media. In her later works, Ajrú (2004), Sihá (2007) and Sós (2008), her compositions led her to a particular atmosphere bordering the electroacoustic, marking her own distinctive sign inside and outside our borders. Her latest work, Deixaas, is the result of an intense research on the possibilities of tradition and sound art, in which she stands out as an international reference.

13th Cyprus Rialto World Music Festival 2018