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“Zampoñistas” is Spanish for ‘panpipe players’. This Melbourne based band is made up of more than a dozen musicians with a passion for the haunting and exciting panpipe music of the Andes. This music is from the wild and remote Altiplano (high plain) of the Andes, the most extensive high plateau on earth outside of Tibet.

Forget the saccharine sweet panpipe sounds of “Picnic at Hanging Rock” or all those soppy K-Tel records of the 1970s. The Zampoñistas play mostly traditional tunes of the Inca people, and they play it in the pre-Spanish Inca way. This involves a unique and fascinating splitting of the musical scale so that half the notes are played by one set of players (Ira) and the other half of the scale are played by the other musicians (Arca). The Incas pioneered stereo sound! It creates an exciting dynamic in the music.

The traditional music is often accompanied by the Bombo Legüero, a traditional drum with a deep and dark sound due to the fur being left on the hide of the hitting surface.

The Zampoñistas also play some more modern tunes and songs accompanied by the guitar, which was introduced by the Spanish Conquistadors in the sixteenth century.

The band formed in Melbourne in 2003 following in the footsteps of Perth band Canto Sikuri, inspired by the work of Cergio Prudencio with the Experimental Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments. They have played at folk clubs, community festivals the National Folk Festival and many other events. They have developed a unique form of musical guerilla surprise attacks as part of their street performances.

The band’s members come from a wide variety of musical backgrounds, but are united by three things: their love of panpipe music, their love of chocolate, and their unstoppable but totally irrational belief in world domination by panpipes!

Viva Zampoñistas!