Rising Above

First formed in 1971, world-renowned Chilean outfit Illapu are about to embark on their sixth Australian tour. There's the little matter of headlining WOMADelaide, arguably the greatest world music event on the planet, but then Melbourne and the rest of the east coast will be privileged to hear the band, whose sound has been described as like hearing the whisper of wind from the Andes. Manager and sometime member Alejandro Vargas is an extraordinarily passionate man, and once he discovers this writer knows something of his native country's troubled past, it's difficult to steer him away from the subject. This is probably for the best, however, as Illapu's music is so tied up in the history of Chile, to discuss one without the other would be disingenuous at best.

In brief, the democratically elected socialist government of President Salvador Allende was overthrown on 11 September, 1973 by a CIA-orchestrated coup d'état and tens of thousands of 'leftists' were subsequently detained, tortured and murdered. Tens of thousands more were exiled, including Illapu themselves, and, as Vargas explains, this continues to be reflected in their music even to this day. “Imagine what it was like,” he says. “Imagine what it was like to create music back in those days of Allende's government and go and play music for free in the shanty towns and then have it all just suddenly end like that and be kicked out of your own country? One day you were playing music to people who had never had a band play to them before, and then the next day musicians were being decapitated because of their songs. It was horrible, it was just horrible, and obviously that has had a huge effect on the music the band makes.”

All of which sounds, naturally enough, reasonably gloomy. But click on any of the many Illapu songs on YouTube, or listen to one of their records, and the overwhelming sensation is one of joyousness and hope. “With all the members of Illapu, it's a great passion,” says Vargas. “It's not just music, it's life. We sing and we play about our loves and our lives and it's done with great joy and emotion. An Illapu live show is full of all these things: it's fun, it's passionate, it's life. It's not about, 'I love you, you love me, let's walk together'. They play songs about schools, they play songs about AIDS. It's about, 'I love life, let's live it together'. It's about, 'You're my friend, my brother, my sister, we're in this together, I will never leave you'.”

All of which should make for an amazing WOMADelaide debut for the band. Interestingly, this is Illapu's first time at the festival, but they have been given an honour few bands receive. To say Vargas is excited might be a bit of an understatement. “It's amazing for the band to be headlining one of the biggest world music festivals,” he says. “It's taken us 40 years to get here, but it will have been worth the wait. We're actually doing both opening and closing nights there. We're one of the very few bands who's ever done that. In between we'll be running some workshops and doing some cooking classes, so it's just going to be an amazing four days.”

As will any time spent giving this band your attention. See, for example, Vargas' further explanation, should any be needed attesting to their credibility, of another factor that motivates Illapu. “It's never about making money. The last festival the band played, they hired another PA system at their own expense and set up outside so that more people could hear the music for free. It's never about the money. It's always about getting the music to the people. And tickets are always around the $35-$40 mark, there's never any thought of $200 tickets or anything like that. The band are icons, but they're icons who don't care about that kind of thing.”

Illapu will be playing the following dates:

Saturday 2 March - Dallas Brooks Centre, Melbourne VIC
Friday 8 - Monday 11 March - WOMADelaide, Botanic Park, Adelaide SA