Soundway set sail for Colombia once again, delving deeper into the South American country’s rich musical past. Boasting 55 tracks spread over two CDs and two triple LPs, ‘The Original Sound of Cumbia’ is Soundway’s definitive guide to the origins of Colombian cumbia and porro and the result of five years pain staking re-search by Will ‘Quantic’ Holland.

Disc 1 tells the story of some the earliest Colombian cumbia recorded, a genre that captured a nation, spreading from its birthplace on the Caribbean coast in land to central Colombia and the capital Bogota. Disc 2 sees the evolution of cumbia. Greats of Colombian music like Alberto Pacheco, Toño Fernandez & Anibal Velasquez brought the music forward, bringing new influences and instruments to the genre. What had once been considered the music of the underclasses had risen up as the new sound of a nation.

After five years of becoming slowly submerged in Colombian musical culture, learning the accordion, setting up a band and a studio, and scouring the country in search it’s recorded legacy, Will ‘Quantic’ Holland (Quantic Soul Orchestra & Quantic y su Combo Barbaro) has compiled the fruits of his labour into this unique compilation that tells the story of cumbia in the years of the phonograph record’s supremacy. Along with good friend and head of Soundway Records, Miles Cletet, Will Holland has condensed hundreds of 78s, 45s and LPs into just over two and a half hours of the finest Colombian cumbia.