Humazapas (Ecuador)

For nearly two decades, ZZK Records has been a driving force in forward-thinking Latin music, reimagining folkloric traditions through electronic experimentation and club culture. Born in 2006 from a renegade party in Buenos Aires, the label helped pioneer the global rise of digital cumbia and launched artists such as Chancha Vía Circuito, Nicola Cruz, and La Yegros.

Humazapas began in 2010, when twelve teenagers from Kichwa communities at the foot of the Imbabura volcanoes came together with a shared mission: to reclaim and carry forward their ancestral music, dance, and language. What started as a youth initiative has grown into a powerful collective dedicated to keeping Kichwa culture alive — not as folklore, but as a living practice rooted in ritual, community, and cosmovision.

Their debut album Sara Mama (“Mother Corn”) embodies this vision. Sung in Kichwa and built on traditional rhythms such as churay, saruy, danzante, and yumbo, the record traces the sacred cycle of corn — from seed to harvest — as a metaphor for life, death, and renewal. With harp, drums, strings, and celebratory voices, Humazapas share the spiritual and ecological wisdom of their people, carrying it from their Andean territories to new generations and global stages. Sara Mama was composed, produced, arranged and recorded by Jesús Bonilla at ANTA Records in the Kichwa community of Turuku, and mastered by Ecuadorian producer Nicola Cruz.

Humazapas (@humazapas) • Instagram profile

Sara Mama, by Humazapas on Bandcamp