Pueblo Santo - A Cumbia Trip
A Multi-Reality Interactive Musical Experience
(Work-in-Progress)
Illustration by Laura Ortiz. Inspired by the photographic work of the album Historias Cantadas.
Pueblo Santo, the place where Cumbia music originated, suffered a horrible massacre that submerged the town in an eternal fog. Only the lost gaita player can bring the town back to life by playing Cumbia’s original melody.
Pueblo Santo: A Cumbia Trip is an interactive musical experience for VR. The indigenous Amacumbié cosmogony intertwines with a depiction of Colombia’s history of violence, challenging the interactor to explore the town, comprehend its past, and restore life by learning how to play Cumbia music.
The fictional universe of Pueblo Santo is based on Historias Cantadas (Sung Stories), a concept album by Gaiteros de Pueblo Santo that was nominated for best folklore album at the 2021 Latin Grammys.
Pueblo Santo: A Cumbia Trip is a experience for stand-alone VR headsets and also a physical installation that immerses interactors in the real world through a multi-sensorial installation that serves as a preparation for the Cumbia trip, to then take them into Pueblo Santo, and take them back to a safe space to decompress the experience.
Director — Maria Cecilia Reyes
Producer — Laura Casadiego
Storyworld and Music — Marlon Peroza
Category — Music, Fiction, Indie Game
Thematics — Culture and arts, History, Social Issues, Music, Myths & Traditions, Latin America, Violence
Country — Colombia
Technologies — 3D animation, 6DoF, Ambisonics sound, Hand tracking, Interactivity
Development status — Early-stage work-in-progress
Supported by — Akademie Schloss Solitude
Mood Teaser
“There wasn’t and never had been a happier place in the world. So much so that the almighty granted permission to the dead to mingle with the living, without one distinguishing from the other.
Cristobal tells that God itself carved the Gaita from the heart of a "pitajaya" tree and gave it to him to scare away evil spirits, preserve the purity of the enclave, attract the purifying rain and guide death so that it does not take away the living dead that had already been taken before.
That was how Cristobal, the first gaitero, played the Original melody, the one that sounds every first day of January to start a new cycle.”
El Origen - Album Historias Cantadas by Gaiteros de Pueblo Santo
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