Festival Guide: New Sounds from the Andes!
In recent years, there has been a surge of new artists creating pop, club music and experimental sounds rooted in the Andean region. At Nasjonal Jazzscene, you can experience A.CHAL’s eclectic diaspora pop and Peruvian trap queen Renata Flores, who blends contemporary genres with the Quechua language on Saturday. Also keep an eye out for the duo Los Thuthanaka, who played one of the best concerts we’ve seen all year at Roskilde in summer 2026.
A.CHAL
Nasjonal Jazzscene
31 October
A.CHAL’s music is having something of a moment right now. It’s not just evident in the wider pop world or in streaming numbers: we’ve received countless requests from you for this artist this year. And we’re proud to be able to deliver! The singer, songwriter and producer was born in Peru and grew up in Queens, New York and Massachusetts. His sound was shaped by alternative R&B, trap, atmospheric hip-hop and a psychedelic sensibility that placed him slightly outside the mainstream.
In recent years, A.CHAL – or Alejandro Salazar, his birth name – has entered a deeper and more personal chapter of his career: a kind of reconnection with his Peruvian identity, spirituality and the popular music he grew up with – electronic music, rap, cumbia and beyond. His songwriting universe is now deeper and more profound than ever. Here, street life, migration, desire, subtle class distinctions, roots and mysticism intertwine.
Read more and buy tickets HERE!
Renata Flores
Nasjonal Jazzscene
31 October
Through her urban genre-bending and use of the Quechua language, Renata Flores has given Peruvian music a fresh and contemporary twist, while also helping to revitalise an Indigenous language fighting for its place in the modern world.
Flores was born in the Ayacucho region in 2001 and broke through in 2015, when she uploaded Quechua versions of Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” and The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun” to YouTube. The videos went viral, and ever since, her artistic project has been to promote Quechua through contemporary music, making the language more appealing to younger generations.
In 2021, Renata Flores released her debut album, Isqun (meaning “nine” in Quechua). Since then, she has reached far beyond Peru’s borders, performing at international festivals and collaborating with artists from around the world. In 2020, The New York Times dubbed her the “Queen of Quechua Rap”. Renata Flores’ music is relentlessly catchy and packed with both ancient and futuristic ideas, making her part of a new wave of artists bringing distinct influences from the Andes into contemporary music culture.
Read more and buy tickets HERE!
Los Thuthanaka
Blå
30 October
The noisy, joy-spilling adventures that make up Los Thuthanaka, the duo’s debut release of the same name, became a sensation when it came out last year. The album, available exclusively on Bandcamp, received rave reviews, and at the end of the year Pitchfork named it the best album of 2025. We’re not going to argue.
Los Thuthanaka feels like a manifesto, a call for experimentation and independent thinking in music. It’s a potent blend of rhythms from the Andes, psychedelic rock, noise, field recordings, Aymara songs and more. According to the duo, the album was never sent for mastering, incorporating digital audio artefacts and static noise as part of its constantly shifting sonic tapestry.
In a musical world increasingly crowded with déjà vu and retro exercises, Los Thuthanaka actually offer something that resembles the shock of the new. And, of course, it’s also insanely catchy music.
Read more and buy tickets HERE!
