Perhaps no nueva canción singer-songwriter in Chile was more important than Violeta Parra. A movement with a broad definition from a region with a maybe even broader definition, nueva canción arose from the same confluence of revolutionary activist movements that spawned so many of the 1960s and 1970s” most important musical genres. Tied to progressive movements of Latin America and the Iberian peninsula, nueva canción emphasized local folk sounds. Indigenous instruments and melodies intertwined with acoustic guitars from the European side of the Atlantic accompanied lyrics of resistance and social justice.
Parra‘s involvement in the movement was deep. She traveled the country, learning a wide range of art forms, and built a repertoire equally connected to the past, present, and possible futures. All the while, she organized, making space for political movements working to empower the Chilean people.
Parra died by suicide in 1967. Just months earlier, she had released Las Últimas Composiciones de Violeta Parra, which included songs whose popularity would endure beyond the life of their composer. Since then, the record has undergone a number of iterations.
After protracted disputes over master tape rights, Vampisoul’s new vinyl album release is the first of its format in the United States, bringing the original 1966 work almost 60 years forward. Gone are the symphonic strings Nino Garcia added in RCA Victor’s 1974 reworking. The space surrounding Violeta Parra’s remarkable voice and bright, stripped-down instrumentation is back. The 14 tracks that comprise her final work ring out here with perfect clarity.
“Gracias a La Vida”, perhaps Parra’s best-known work globally, opens the LP. The gentle melancholy of Parra’s voice flows over jangling charango chords and son Ángel’s smooth and subtle guitar work. As masterful as ever, it is more haunting in this sans-orchestra version, a gripping, effective start to Las Últimas Composiciones that shapes the entire listening experience. The bareness of each arrangement makes the stakes feel higher.
More uptempo songs like “El Albertio” and “Pupila de Águila”, a rousing duet with drummer and singer Alberto Zapicán, feel more tense. The fire in Violeta Parra’s voice is palpable even in cuts like “Cantores que reflexionan” and “Pastelero a Tus pasteles”, which sound gentle as they tackle themes of anxiety and scarcity. Her last written song and another piece whose fame has outlived Parra, “Volver a Los 17”, conveys a heartbreaking wistfulness, its melancholy nothing short of stunning.
Every iteration of Las Últimas Composiciones de Violeta Parra is a good one. Garcia’s lush arrangements are works of art in and of themselves, beautiful, elaborate frames for Parra’s creative brilliance. There is, though, an intimacy to listening to the album as Vampisoul produces it in this newest printing. Violeta Parra and the few collaborators she works with here (Ángel, Zapicán, and daughter Isabel, who brings guitar and percussion to “La Cueca de los Poetas” and “Pastelero a Tus Pasteles”) have enough room to resonate here truly, and the results are stunning. It’s always a good time to revisit music that takes a stand against fascism, and Las Últimas Composiciones includes some of South America’s best.