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Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
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Musician: Lukax Santana
Location: London
Instruments: voice / percussion / pot, chajchas, bells
Music: Chilean / South American / improvisation
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HOW I CAME TO THIS MUSICÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýWHERE I PLAYÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýA FAVOURITE SONG |
  
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 ÌýÌýListen to (7'40) 'Constellation of Birds', performed live by Lukax Santana at the Spitz, London, with Lukas on toropot, bottles, chajchas, bells and vocals.
ÌýÌýListen to (5'00) 'Improvisation' performed by Lukax Santana on percussion and vocals, with Paul Moss on flutes, saxophones, clarinet, banjos and vocals.
ÌýÌýListen to (4'14) to Lukax Santana talk about his music:
'I always wanted to play drum kit but that was too expensive so I just played with sticks on pots and pans and anything that made the sound of the drum'
How I came to this music:
As a child growing up in Chile, I remember listening to lots of tangos from Argentina and boleros from Cuba on my parents 78 vinyls. I also remember that I probably broke most of them too. Though my whole family loved music, only two uncles of mine actually sang tango, one in a local cabaret club and the other when he was drunk at family gatherings.
I come from Viña del Mar, a small city on the west coast about 200 kms from Santiago, the capital of Chile. For the early part of my life, I lived with my grandparents because both of my parents worked. I always wanted to play a drum kit but that was too expensive so I just played with sticks on pots and pans and anything that made the sound of the drum.
By the time I was 14 years old, I didn't connect with traditional Chilean music at all. I was more interested in Western pop and rock music - The Rolling Stone, Jimi Hendrix. The official Chilean folk music was far too contrived for my tastes. It conveyed a mythical image of Chile that the authorities wanted the rest of the world to believe and I just didn't like that.
 Then one day I saw a local group, Los Jaivas, perform in our market square. They were playing rock music with electric instruments combined with radios and the insides of pianos in a John Cage style. They were also using flutes and pan pipes, traditional folk instruments popular among the Mapucho Indians of Southern Chile. Something clicked for me and I decided on my musical course to fuse South American traditional instruments with electronics. I eventually got to perform and record with Los Jaivas who went on to become a very famous Chilean group.
My parents wanted me to study something useful but I started a degree in Stage Design. Pinochet's military coup of 11th September, 1973, ended that. I spent a year in jail and then around 1975, I was eventually exiled to England where I've been living ever since
 In London, I got very involved in the Chilean Solidarity Campaign as more refugees arrived from Latin America. The political events always included musical performances and even though I don't like propaganda and believe art and music, unlike politics, does not have an ideology, I wanted to be with my fellow Chileans in exile.
A year later, I met a bunch of Brazilian musicians which was a revelation. I'd never actually met people from other Latin American countries before because Chile is completely isolated geographically. Then here I was in London meeting Columbians, Argentinians and Brazilians and I really enjoyed their rhythms. We played samba and bossa nova. Then I joined a Chilean folk group with whom I toured all over the UK and Cyprus for about 5 years. We had a wonderful time but I got very tired and frustrated because I felt I still wasn't doing the music that I wanted to do.
 Around 1996, I stopped playing and found a job as a translator for a small tv production company where I became an editor of a football programme for South American television. The company went bust after about 3 years and now I do part-time translations as well as teach the occasional music workshop.
Since I've stopped working professionally, I've formed my own group called Quilombo Expontañeo. We play improvised music in a Latin American style. The band is always changing, depending on what musicians come in from South America. We're not interested in making money. We just want to improvise and enjoy sound and rhythm. I chose the name because it's got multiple meanings. Quilombo was originally a place where escaped slaves went to live among the indigenous Indian population. It also means 'chaos' in certain areas of Argentina and Uruquay. In Chile, the word means 'brothel', so take your pick!
 My favourite instrument is the pot. It's a ceramic ball with a neck and a hole in the side which, when covered, creates the most beautiful sound. It's similar to the Indian ghatam. I also play the bombos, the Chilean big drums and a set of Peruvian chajchas which were made from Lamas' talons. I even make my own chajchas from seeds that I picked up from my travels in Cyprus and Chile. In fact I make lots of instruments, not least a percussion instrument based on a picture I saw on a cd of music from the Solomon Islands. It's made from hollowed out bamboo tubes and I've customised a pair of rubber flip flops into drum sticks to create the sound. I've also made lots of rain sticks and combine those sounds with the sounds of toys, bottles, an egg beater and bits of junk. They're cheap and they make wonderful sounds when cleverly combined.
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