Fronted by singer Karla Kanora, Rio Mira is an exciting recording collaboration between artists from neighbouring Ecuador and Colombia. Their debut album, released on a ZZK’s sub label AYA Records is produced by Iván Benavides (involved in Latin Grammy-winning groups like Choq Quib Town andLos Giateros de San Jacinto) and Ivis Flies (producer of Latin Grammy-winning social heritage project De Taitas y Mamas) and is guided by the distinctive percussive tones of the marimba, an all-important ingredient of this socially conscious project.

Based out of the coastal town of Esmeraldas in Ecuador, the project organisers are also developing a festival aiming to shift the negative attitudes toward Afro-Ecuadorian music, a multi-pronged initiative channeling the region’s UNESCO-recognized musical history. A symbol of the border-spanning, Afro-Pacific identity, the marimba’s story is closely intertwined with that of the escaped slaves, known as maroons, who made the region their home from the early 16th century onward.