**“Cumbia Del Monte Fuji” has over 1 million streams on Spotify**

Minyo Crusaders joined forces with Colombian cumbia radicals Frente Cumbiero on Minyo Cumbiero, a collaborative release that fuses ancient Japanese folk songs with heavyweight Colombian styles.

Recorded across two days in Bogota in August 2019 Minyo Cumbiero captures a thrilling exchange between two radical and triumphant groups. Japan and Colombia may be cultural opposites on different sides of the world, yet the countries are bursting at the seams musically and on this EP both groups stridently drive their respective music cultures and histories in exciting new directions with powerhouse horn sections, rippling dub basslines and rampant Afro-Latin polyrhythms creating carnival grooves.

Having met in 2018 at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival Mario invited Minyo Crusaders to Bogota in 2019 to perform at a local festival and record this EP. “I was really amazed how well they put together these ancient songs from Japan with Caribbean rhythms” says Mario. “You can really tell the high sensibility they have for being able to hear what are the meeting points between different vocal traditions, African, Latin American styles: they were fearless in trying to take this forward.  It was also great to find tropical souls in Japan and see how much we have in common musically”. Katsumi from Minyo Crusaders adds: “Putting this record together with Frente Cumbiero was very exciting. We recorded over 2 days. The 1st day we ate. The 2nd day we recorded. It was a really nice atmosphere - a true cultural fusion. Now we are family”.