Los Wembler’s de Iquitos are pioneers of cumbia amazónica—a groundbreaking fusion of psychedelic rock, surf, Afro-Latin rhythms, and indigenous melodies.
Now revered as elder statesmen of Latin alternative music, they've inspired a new generation of artists across the Americas and Europe. Their recent EP Ikaro del Amor, produced by Olivier Conan and with key tracks remixed by their musical heirs in The Meridian Brothers, channels the spirit of Amazonian shamanism with a heavier, more hypnotic sound. Los Wembler’s continue to shape the ever-evolving legacy of cumbia, proving that there’s still plenty to discover in their music.
The band was formed in 1968 by shoemaker Solomon Sánchez and his five sons. They were the first band in the Amazon to play popular local rhythms on electric guitars. Their hometown, Iquitos, is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road that is not on an island. The radio became the brother’s main link to the outside world. In addition to their daily diets of Tahuampa, Pandilas and Criollo waltzes, long wave radio broadcasts exposed them to Colombian Cumbia, Brazilian Carimbo, Ecuadorian San Juanitos, Venezuelan joropos and last, but not least, psychedelic rock. They fell in love with the sound of the wah wah pedal, using it to transform local rhythms into something new.
Their early hits like “Sonido Amazónico” and “Danza del Petrolero” became iconic anthems of the psychedelic cumbia movement, a genre rediscovered globally through the acclaimed Roots of Chicha compilations released by Brooklyn’s Barbès Records in the 2000s. Though they mostly remained local legends in Iquitos, Los Wembler’s became an unexpected cornerstone of a worldwide cumbia revival.
