Cuca Negra – Tierra de Orbayu [Fill-Lex Records]

Cuca Negra is the densest pseudonym of Ivan Zapico, musician and sound designer from Spain now based in Berlin, Germany. Zapico’s sonic insight and experiences are mirrored through his different musical alter egos such as Cuca Negra, Planet∆ry, or Alpha Visitor. His music has been released on labels like Shipwrec, Voidance Records, ISSXII, Larmes, Shi-Shi, Brainstormlab, Junkie Slang, and his own one Pagan Shelter.

Cuca Negra’s latest work, Tierra de Orbayu, is conceived as a soundtrack set in the context of the bloody Astur-Cantabrian wars that took place from 29 BC to 19 BC between the Roman State and the different Cantabrian and Asturian peoples in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

The pagan Celts perceived the presence of the supernatural as an integral part of the material world and intertwined with it. While the polytheistic cultures of Greco-Latin worldview revolved around urban life. Celts were archaic but complex societies in union and harmony with the forces of nature, surrounded by druids, rituals, beasts, and mysticism, underworlds with stories of warriors from Averno, knowledge of magic and sciences, as well as a close passion for art and music. With a strong warrior identity they were not going to lose their freedom and autonomy easily. Rome was baffled by the ferocity of these tribes, who entered a kind of warrior trance, fought naked or sang victory hymns while being crucified. These savage, rough, and warlike peoples were even capable of committing group suicide or throwing themselves into the fire before being enslaved motivated by the idea of accessing Valhalla.

“Orbayu” is a fine rain like a dense fog that soaks into the bones. This is what the first emperor Augustus himself felt when he had to go personally to the confines of the empire. Finally, the “Pax Romana” was imposed by blood and fire through a war of extermination that marked the culmination of the conquest of Hispania after 200 years.

Tierra de Orbayu is a cross-cutting work that explores from black gothic atmospheres infused with brittle bone industrial percussions across menacing rusty noise amid of a storm to the most submerged techno depth charges.

Release date: March 3rd, 2023.