Beny Esguerra

Fusing spoken word, hip hop and turntablism with Colombian Afro-Indigenous música de gaita, Juno-nominated Beny Esguerra and New Tradition Music deliver an urgent call for justice, environmental healing and respect for ancestors and land treaties.


Inspired by the ancient prophecy of the Condor and the Eagle, Colombian-born, Mestizo multi-instrumentalist and lyricist Ruben ‘Beny’ Esguerra draws on Afro-Latin percussion, Indigenous-Colombian kuisi flutes and collaborations with Indigenous artist from Turtle Island to unite the music of South and North America.


After being nominated for a JUNO for their second album, New Tradition Music returns with Northside Kuisi, a carefully-woven song cycle of 12 compositions that unfold a story, set in the distant future, of the discoveries of an archeological dig where traditional instruments -- a South American-Indigenous kuisi (flute) and a North American-Indegenous hand drum -- alongside a vinyl disc containing encrypted information from the past (2020AD) are unearthed and interpreted by a news team speaking an imagined creole of Spanish and indigenous languages.