Inti-Illimani

With a regal name loosely translating from Bolivia's Ayamara dialect as "Sun-Mountain", Chile’s Inti-Illimani are Latin America’s greatest, longest running folkloric group ever recorded. In more than three decades of existence, the band has acted as an Andean musical ambassador to the world, rendering the soulful folk idioms of their region and others with more than 30 different wind, string and percussion instruments. Touring in Europe at the time of Pinochet’s 1973 military coup, the group was forbidden entry back into their homeland, an exile that lasted 14 years. Inti-Illimani has since integrated many other musical influences, including the sounds of West Africa and the Caribbean. In 1998, the band gave a poignant performance at the inauguration ceremony for Chile’s first socialist president since Salvador Allende.