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If you are Dominican and have been alive through the Eighties and ’90s, chances are high Juan Luis Guerra<\/a>‘s hits turned the soundtrack of your life. They’d play at each household operate, throughout lengthy automobile rides, or on the seashore, and he was possible your mami’s favourite artist to blast throughout her Saturday morning cleansing rituals<\/a>. Throughout his prolific and four-decade profession, Guerra has not solely reinvented the tropical rhythms of his native Dominican Republic alongside his band 4.40, however he is additionally reached audiences method past simply the Dominican group. With 30 million-plus albums bought all over the world and greater than 20 Latin Grammy wins, Guerra has turn out to be a legend within the Latin music house and never only for his poetic lyrics \u2014 he is sometimes called the Pablo Neruda of merengue and bachata \u2014 but additionally for by no means being afraid to innovate or coloration outdoors of the traces of what “Dominican music” is meant to sound like. His new EP, “Radio G\u00fcira,” which was launched earlier this month, proves simply that.<\/p>\n “Radio G\u00fcira” was impressed by each a radio present Guerra had years in the past, in addition to his love for the g\u00fcira, a percussion instrument that is typically performed in Dominican folklore music. The progressive EP additionally consists of interludes, radio-style commercials, and even one in every of Guerra’s favourite habichuelas guisadas recipes by Nuna, the lady who cooks in his residence. You hear her reciting the recipe within the intro to the “Cositas de Amor” observe.<\/p>\n “I had a radio [show] within the Dominican Republic referred to as Radio Viva and it performed music from the continents. Then once I began engaged on the album, [and] I noticed it was a variety of new issues \u2014 issues I have never finished earlier than,” Guerra tells POPSUGAR. “[With] ‘MAMBO 23,’ we had by no means finished merengue that quick. We started mixing it with classical, including French horn to the violins, which usually shouldn’t be finished, and [we] assorted the orchestration.”<\/p>\n Guerra has been fusing totally different sounds and genres because the ’80s, when virtually no different Latin music artist \u2014 not to mention a Dominican artist \u2014 was daring sufficient to strive. It’s what has contributed to his signature sound. If a Juan Luis Guerra music performs on the radio, even when it is your first time listening to it, you will simply acknowledge it as one in every of his. And with “Radio G\u00fcira,” there is a celebration of each old skool and new college Guerra. It fuses genres like mambo, merengue, rock and even jazz.<\/p>\n “I attempted very laborious to attach with a youthful viewers on this album. I’ve already linked with different audiences, those that may hearken to my music as a result of they prefer it \u2014 thank God. But I wished to attach with a youthful one,” Guerra says. <\/p>\n Guerra’s inspiration to fuse sounds early in his profession had so much to do with the music he listened to throughout his youth \u00ad\u2014 a variety of it being rock. He was a giant fan of The Beatles rising up, for instance.<\/p>\n “The sound of our guitar, the best way I play guitar, it is extremely rock-oriented inside bachata,” he says. “That’s why our bachata has a unique coloration in comparison with others. I’ve all the time been drawn to mixing totally different genres and I feel the end result was superb [and] a variety of the youthful technology are doing the identical.”<\/p>\n