Various – Canto A Lo Divino 2LP Mississippi Records

Canto A Lo Divino is the sacred music of Chile’s Central Valley. It is a communal form of worship and reflection for the peasants of the remote region, played in packed rooms throughout the night when work is done, hypnotic variations chiming out on the guitar and the celestial, 25-string guitarron.

The Canto has persisted for centuries in the voices of hundreds of men and women who conjure vivid visions of apocalypse, the divine, and angelitos (very young children who have died). But the verses are also rooted in daily life in the valley – labor and drought, family, animals, and the life cycles of plants. There are countless entonaciones (melodies) passed on in 10-line rhyming decimas, an ancient song form originating in Spain and found from South America to the Mississippi Delta. The combination is entrancing and transporting, cosmic and earthly at once.

The artwork introduces the work of Frederico Lohse, a baker from the village of Los Vilos who brought the end-times visions from the cantos to life – the apocalypse painted on old flour sacks. 

Mississippi Records is privileged to work with the Museo Campesino En Movimiento and their archive of hundreds of hours of intimate field recordings of the Canto – music rarely, if ever, heard outside of the region.

Double vinyl LP comes housed in deluxe gatefold jacket with 8 pages of lyrics, photos, and extensive notes about the Canto tradition.