Tim Garcia 7pm

Fruko & The Bonita House Band 8.45pm

The Colombian maestro and living legend, Fruko, has a legacy as an important and impactful composer, performer, and producer.

With over 800 albums recorded, and globally recognised for his commercial success with Fruko y Sus Tesos, Fruko has a much more experimental and diasporic sound.

Joining La Linea 2024 with a live exploration of his back catalogue The Afrosound of Colombia, he experiments and explores psychedelia in the 60s and 70s in Colombia.

Performing with one of the most exciting Latin bands in the UK, The Bonita House Band, comprising some of the best musicians in the London scene, this will be a unique opportunity to experience this music being played by Fruko himself. Fruko showcases music from the main projects which he has directed, produced and written for: Fruko y Sus Tesos, The Latin Brothers, Wganda Kenya, Afrosound and Los Corraleros de Majagual.

Between the 1970s and the late 1980s, Wganda Kenya formed part of a small collection of pioneering Afro-Colombian bands that ruled the airwaves in northern Colombian cities like Cartagena and Barranquilla. They were put together in the 1970s by Discos Fuentes, the famous Medellín-based label (often described as Colombia’s version of ‘Motown’), along with sister group Afrosound. The name Wganda Kenya invokes an African heritage, and their music combined the furious rhythms inherited from the Fela Kuti albums that were arriving in Colombia’s coastal regions at the time with a large spoonful of 70s funk, and their own electric, Latin flavour.

Afrosound was a domestic version of the emerging African and Latin rock sounds coming from outside the country. Inspired by groups like Osibisa and Santana it emulated the guitar-heavy tropical sounds emanating from Perú and Ecuador at the time. There were improvised vocal asides (called ‘inspiraciones’), plus a barrage of synths, drum machines and other electronic flourishes. The most famous Afrosound hit of all, Caliventura, is a genius blend of funk and cumbia.

Read Songlines’ Beginners’ Guide to Fruko here

London native Tim Garcia is a DJ, Broadcaster and record Label Owner spins a special opening set. His passion for sharing music saw him hold down a 5 year weekly residency on national radio station Jazz FM, followed by a show on Worldwide FM until it closed and now a residency on Balamii Radio. With his label Musica Macondo he’s put out a broad range of music from artists from Latin America, Africa, North America and Europe. Releasing music from Grammy nominated musicians.