Alimusiquita

Meet the Artist

In a nutshell

I am a UK born multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter based in Colombia. My mission is to bring nature to your ears by fusioning ancestral folk sounds with my song writing. I am passionate about conscious messages in music and see my art as a way to awaken memories of our origin and connection to mother nature. Melody is a language for me and often the first aspect of a song that arrives to me when I am in the creative process.

In 2024, I toured in Colombia with a project called ’Aires Nativos’: a live music soundscape project with native wind instruments from the Americas and live recordings from The Sierra Nevada and Amazon jungles. I love to experiment with live looping and the fusion of ancestral instruments with electronic sounds.

Apart from my own creative process, I dedicate time to giving workshops to those looking to explore their instruments, voices, harmonizing and songwriting. I have also been part of the project Jaba Aluna , in which I musicalized and translated indigenous sacred stories told in person by the Kogui tribe of the Sierra Nevada mountains of Colombia. I facilitate spaces for people to learn to make their own native wind instrument with indigenous luthiers. The diversity of musical genres and biodiversity in Colombia is a huge inspiration to me. From African ancestral rhythms to Andean medicine music, the country expresses its music, folklore and dance passionately.

Pieces of my musical journey

I started to ask for musical instruments from the age of three! After pestering my Mum for a few years I first started to play the keyboard and then later started to study classical piano with a neighbour. I started to play the guitar at 18 years old. The exploration of sound itself inspired me to start writing songs. When we explore sound it's like we paint with vibration - it’s a way of surpassing the material body and world and connecting with something greater than us. For this reason music is transcendental and has the ability to communicate with us faster than words. Vibration/frequency doesn’t lie!

I started to play at open mic nights in my 20's. It was a great way to meet and collaborate with other artists. I was part of a small folk band when I moved to Colombia, we incorporated Andean instruments and also explored our own compositions.

In the last few years I have really enjoyed creating soundscapes and playing native live instruments with recordings of forests and their birdsong. I like to create immersive moments where participants feel like they are truly in the jungle or forest!

My sound

My sound is heavily inspired by the folklore of South America. I play a number of Andean flutes and wind instruments. I was lucky enough to study with Ivan Agrega, an indigenous Kamëntšá Luthier (The Kamëntšá people are indigenous people of Colombia. They primarily live in the Sibundoy Valley of the Putumayo Department in the south of Colombia).

Ivan guided me through the process of making different native wind instruments, asking permission from the tree that the wood would be harvested from, and carefully carving and tuning the flutes. Ancestral technology fascinates me and to have this sustainable connection to mother nature musically is very inspiring. It is very important that the presence of this original ancestral sound is present in my music. Native wind instruments carry the messages of the trees themselves. They are considered to be medicinal and our bodies receive their sounds like a fresh wind or new air. I am starting to walk the path of fusioning these sounds and memories in the electro folk genre.

My guitar sound is very influenced by Brazilian Chorinos, Samba and Bossa Nova. I’m a big admirer of Brazilian guitarists such as Baden Powell and Rosinha de Valença . I believe that their melodies have a unique capacity for capturing emotions such as melancholy, happiness, pain, forgiveness and nostalgia.

Artists that inspire me would be: el Buho , Runakam , Bomba Estereo, Jacana Jacana, Inti Illimani.

My mission

To make music is an undeniable part of myself, it’s to be a bridge to others, to other musicians, cultures and knowledge. To be a musician is a spiritual gift that actually is a great responsibility.

My message as an artist is to regularly connect and be grateful to mother nature, it is also to raise the voices of those who live in harmony with mother nature.

I believe in a growth mindset and also like to encourage this in other people. I think it’s important to not allow perfectionism or negative self talk to stop you from creating. The creative path is sometimes one that you have to walk alone but also it allows us to meet amazing aligned beings along the way. It’s very important to always be authentic, trust your intuition and not be afraid of following your own path even if it doesn't make sense to others.

My mission in sharing my music is to awaken an ancestral memory that lies in each one of us, to create and be part of a sustainable and supportive musical community.

The Jamhouse Connection

I was brought to Jamhouse via Shaels, the artist and music producer. Jamhouse stands out to me because of the community and holistic spaces that it creates around music and art. Also, the collection of Artists that they represent is eclectic, representative and inspiring. I loved to learn that Jamhouse started with weekly jams in Emma’s living room and to see that a label has been created organically and naturally around community is really inspiring and comforting. I'm a big believer in sustainable growth.

I love how Jamhouse sees our song “Morning Rain” as a vehicle for raising the voices and messages of the Kogui, (an indigenous community based in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Colombia). This is a mission that is close to my heart - for the last 5 years, I have been regularly facilitating musical spaces where members of the public can listen to the Kogui’s teachings and sacred stories.

Passions

I love to paint! Usually wildlife - I like to capture animals’ expressions and authenticity close up. I often paint with acrylic but I’m experimenting with watercolours at the moment which is very humbling.

I love to feel small in comparison to vast nature and its infinite wisdom. Nature’s technology is perfect and when I’m immersed in nature I feel that I’m in the presence of something great, omnipresent and enormous. It gives me a great amount of comfort to feel in the presence of something more intelligent than me.

I like to return often to the simplicities and necessities of life, be this via sleeping in a hammock in the mountain and being close to a bonfire, or asking permission before I enter the waters of a river to swim. There are ancestral aspects of being human that are actually really fundamental in our happines. Connecting to the 4 elements is very healing -

Fire to transmute, water to transform, air to feel freedom, earth to heal and ground.

I’m passionate about ancestral methods of healing the body, mind and spirit. These are sometimes referred to in modern society as ‘alternative methods’ of healing but in fact they are the most original and sustainable ways of healing the body and spirit. I truly believe that our physical wellbeing is intrinsic to our emotional and spiritual well being. It should be obvious that a lot of the food we eat has the energy of the sun’s rays.

I have been hosting holistic spaces and retreats for the last 5 years. The retreats offer participants the opportunity to immerse themselves in nature, hiking, Yoga, indigenous wisdom, and have safe access to ancestral medicines. I teach yoga and am fascinated by its healing capacities. I want to go to India one day to deepen my studies of yogic practice and healing.

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