‘We’re zombies. We’ve lost all connection to one another’: Astropical, the Latin supergroup healing our broken brains

After his band Rawayana were driven out of Venezuela by their own president, Beto Montenegro joined with Li Saumet of Bomba Estéreo to make music that battles political strife with pure joy

The coming together of two of Latin America’s most successful and inventive pop acts might seem like a market-savvy partnership dreamed up by their record labels, but for Li Saumet, frontwoman of Colombia’s Bomba Estéreo, it’s a cosmic calling.

“One day I received a message from the universe: it’s time to make a song with Rawayana,” she says, sitting next to Beto Montenegro, frontman with that Venezuelan band and now Saumet’s partner in the supergroup Astropical. In a Bogotá hotel ahead of a performance at Estéreo Picnic festival, the duo regularly finish each other’s sentences, and Saumet rests her head on Montenegro’s shoulder with the ease of a sibling. On Astropical’s self-titled debut album, Saumet’s vibrant calls to dance and appreciate natural beauty bounce harmoniously off Montenegro’s softer vocals.

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