Interview - URKU LLANTHU

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Ecuadorian Dungeon Synth / Dark Folk artist URKU LLANTHU has recently launched another well-crafted album, the 4th full-length entitled "Tarpuk Amsa" as a magnificent follow-up to his previous releases; "Urku Llanthu" (2020), "Waka Isku" (2022) and "Ayapampa" (2024). Pablo Mesías a.k.a Atuk Urku Llanthu has spent 26 years of musical artistic career, in various bands of the Ecuadorian underground from the period 1988 to the present 2024, an uninterrupted activity actively participating in bands such as Acracia, Nekropcia, Blasfemo, Alkitran and the current one-man-band project: URKU LLANTHU.

Interview by Jiwa

[01] Hail and dark greetings Urku Llanthu. How are you Pablo Mesías?

Pablo Mesías: A big hello from Ecuador, it is an honor for me to maintain this contact through this underground means of communication and dissemination.

[02] Congratulations on the recent release of a new album. Please share your feelings about the fourth full-length "Tarpuk Amsa"?

Pablo Mesías: Indeed, it is the new musical work 2024 that bears the name TARPUK AMSA [Quechua] / SEMBRADOR OSCURO [Spanish] / DARK SOWER [English]. Published in March 2024 under the label Takiri Prod. Ind.

[03] Tell us about the making of the songs, the recording process and the final production of this new album?

Pablo Mesías: This is the remembrance made for this fourth studio album 2024, artistic inspiration and musical composition based on the ancestral Andean legacy; a completely conceptual and dualistic album that bears the name in Quechua dialect [Tarpuk Amsa], a complex process of cultural, musical and artistic research that leads me to go to the exact place where the source is for the generation of these stories in the form of songs.

[04] In your own opinion, how did your works (in matters of music and sound) evolve through "Tarpuk Amsa" compared to the previous 3 albums?

Pablo Mesías: Maintaining a firm idea of the musical genre in which Urku Llanthu is framed, which is Dungeon Synth, has made very clear to me this concept and added value of the ancestral culture of this part of the planet where I come from, in this way the same characteristics that I can add in terms of the sound field and audition of the different typical Andean instruments, which undoubtedly give that character and form to Urku Llanthu. Hence, there is a great evolution at the level of composition and artistic creation without moving away from the main genre.

[05] What is "Tarpuk Amsa" all about in terms of themes and messages?

Pablo Mesías: Jichi is a mythological being well known in the different native cultures of the lowlands settled in the Andes mountain range that crosses Bolivia. When man does not wisely manage water, Jichi leaves, leaving behind drought, poor fishing, hunting flees and all life processes become unsustainable. It is considered a guardian deity of the waters, who mainly gives rise to life. It has rarely been seen, it comes out when the sun sets, when the dark night arrives; it is also associated with stone, the stars and female fertility.

[06] Were you influenced by anything or anyone while preparing "Tarpuk Amsa"?

Pablo Mesías: The ancient ancestors who inhabited the Andes Mountains remember with vast wisdom that at the mouth of the Amazon River there was a lake of milk. Our history is born there, our life begins there, we who were fish. From that lake of milk the mother of water [the guió or anaconda] left and began to rise up the Amazon River and took us with her, on her back, going against the current. Searching for the high land, the mystical prairies and mountains, which are what serve for men, to form culture, so that they are formed of flesh and blood and can live. In the anaconda tobacco was brought, smoked and impregnated with ideas in a spiritual way to choose the correct path and balance of being.

[07] What are your goals and hopes for this new album?

Pablo Mesías: To continue projecting outside of Ecuador this great cultural and ancestral legacy, as well as the great mysticism that is contained in the daily life of our primary peoples, through this musical art.

[08] Tell us something about "Uchpa", your latest split with A Night Light?

Pablo Mesías: UCHPA [Quechua] / CENIZAS [Spanish] / ASHES [English] is a Split Disc International, Recording Studio 2024 - the split of A NIGHT LIGHT (Bolivia's Post-Atmospheric Black Metal) and URKU LLANTHU (Ecuador's Dungeon Synth / Dark FolkMetal)

 Cenizas [Uchpa] is a tribute to all living beings that are devastated by the spirit of fire in its path. It is a denunciation of those responsible for the use of such a powerful element to destroy behind a background of economic-lucrative reissues. While in these parts of the territory greed weighs more, nature is relegated to the background, forgetting that humans are dependent on it, and the wealth that it gives us is slowly coming to an end. Everything that is happening to the forests and green meadows will soon reach the big cities in a kind of boomerang, the consequences will be devastating. We are at the point of no return, before approaching irreversible extinction. If we do not react now, everything will have been in vain. From the experience of death in Andean communities, the sense of transcendence and immanence of the spirit of beings is understood. After death we can be in the afterlife and also in the world of the living. Wajta is an offering also known as a table, which is made in the Andean world as a tribute to Pachamama or Mother Earth. The month of August, when the sowing season begins in the highlands, is the time of year when this offering is made, as a way of gratitude and a way of reversing the goodness of nature, for the following seasons and cycles of the same.

[09] What do you think about the current scene of Dungeon Synth / Dark Ambient / Folk music, especially the scene in Ecuador?

Pablo Mesías: As for the musical genre in which Urku Llanthu frames his proposal and presentation, it was initially quite unknown, even more so today due to everything I have achieved little by little along the way to present professionally, Dungeon Synth has for now made an impression on listeners, especially so that from their place each person investigates and becomes more involved with this genre and its very strong current at an international level.

[10] Thank you Pablo Mesías. Please say anything you want to end this interview?

Pablo Mesías: I would like to deeply thank those behind the writing, presentation and dissemination of HIDDEN SOUNDS, and I extend my respect to the people of Malaysia and send my fraternal greetings.

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