Experimental band: "Grupo Madera", is a Venezuelan Folklore group formed in the Marín neighborhood of San Agustín del Sur, Caracas - Venezuela - 1977, by various musicians and singers from that well-known Caracas parish, including Carlos Daniel Palacios, Ricardo Quintero, Felipe Rengifo, Jesús "Chu" Quintero, Nelly Ramos and Juan Ramón Castro.
In a trajectory of a few years of intense artistic work and cultural research, they popularized the Afro-American musical roots of their country.
The band stood out for interpreting their songs within their folk genres, especially in Afro-Venezuelan music.
According to some analysts, the Madera Group constituted a musical group rooted in Afro-American percussion, because they rescued musical elements of African origin from the Venezuelan tradition, adding other contemporary artistic components from the Caribbean region, which allowed them to create with the touch of drums.
They were the first to make Venezuelan music using and mixing Afro-American drums of different origins, such as the tumbadoras, the bagpipe drums, the batá, the congas, the pujao, the ass'e puya and the Dominican drums; but built in Caracas, by a neighbor of the La Charneca neighborhood of San Agustín del Sur.
On August 15, 1980, eleven members of the Madera Group died during a boat trip in the Amazonas state / southern Venezuela. That day in the morning, the Esther boat, in which they were moving, sank in the waters of the Orinoco River.
Carlos Daniel Palacios, singer, was a survivor of the tragedy, the same as Felipe Rengifo, 'Mandingo' and Marcela González. Survivors have repeatedly recounted that the indigenous people saved them.
A few years after that tragic event the survivors of the band managed to regroup under the leadership of Noel Marquez to continue the legacy of it's founders, which still keeps spreading until today.

"Grupo Madera" meets the Electropical team for the making of their latest single: Candela.


Credits:

Grupo Madera: Vocals and Drums
Martin Denev: Keys and Synths
Juan Laya: Additional Percussion
Jorge Montiel: Programming
Raphael Delphino: Guitar
Matheus Nova: Bass

Produced by Juan Laya & Jorge Montiel