Empanadas
Ilegales
Vancouver-based psychedelic cumbia and salsa ensemble Empanadas Ilegales delivers contagious cumbia rhythms, hypnotic guitar melodies, and experimental salsa trumpet lines to create a Latin surf-rock/free-jazz fusion.
Empanadas
Ilegales
Vancouver-based psychedelic cumbia and salsa ensemble Empanadas Ilegales delivers contagious cumbia rhythms, hypnotic guitar melodies, and experimental salsa trumpet lines to create a Latin surf-rock/free-jazz fusion.
Formed in 2017 through late-night jam sessions and rogue rooftop gigs, Empanadas Ilegales is a psychedelic tropical music collective made up of musicians with roots in Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, and Canada. Their music is both homage and invention: cumbia meets surf rock, salsa runs through Persian melodies, and folklore collides with free jazz.
Their debut release, Papayón, was recorded live on location at Vancouver’s Fortune Sound Club, and showcases their stage presence through a vibrant blend of six tracks. Creepy Mambo followed in 2022, as a bold nod to cumbia classics. In 2024, the group continued to document their incomparable live set by taking things higher: recording Creepy Mambo from the rooftop of the Warrington Art Collective in Vancouver. With performances at major events including Sled Island, Montreal Jazz Festival, Calgary Folk Fest, SunFest, Mixto Fest and JUNOFest, the band continues to expand their reach bridging cultures, sounds, and generations through rhythm-forward, dance-driven musical storytelling. Their music is a call and response connecting hemispheres, igniting dance floors across cultures.
“A delicious, psych-fried take on Latin American dance music.”
Jean-Michel Lacombe | Exclaim!
“There’s nothing verboten about Empanadas Ilegales’s delicious dance music. Cookedup during the pandemic, 2021’s Papayón and freshly released follow-up CreepyMambo stir together salsa saxes, cumbia percussion and surf rock guitars for anintoxicating mix of band members’ Latin American roots with the psych stylings of theWest Coast. Most songs run between five and nine minutes, but are worth multiplehelpings to savour each and every instrumental element. For fans of: Bomba Estéreo,Chicha Libre”
Matt Bobkin | Exclaim!
Formed in 2017 through late-night jam sessions and rogue rooftop gigs, Empanadas Ilegales is a psychedelic tropical music collective made up of musicians with roots in Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, and Canada. Their music is both homage and invention: cumbia meets surf rock, salsa runs through Persian melodies, and folklore collides with free jazz.
“A delicious, psych-fried take on Latin American dance music.”
Jean-Michel Lacombe | Exclaim!