Lido Pimienta, “Caribenya”

A New Age titan and Latin rhythms influence Pimienta’s latest. Read full story on the Bandcamp Daily .

Enya’s life is the stuff of lore and legend. Famously reclusive and publicity-averse, Ireland’s best-selling solo artist resides in a towering Victorian castle by the sea with her cats, and hasn’t performed a solo tour in nearly 50 years. But, her influence has a habit of showing up in the most unlikely of places—“Orinoco Flow” can be heard everywhere from 2023’s Gran Turismo film to South Park.

The “Queen of New Age” and multi-tracked vocals is also a guiding light for Colombia-born, Toronto-based alchemist Lido Pimienta, whose own multi-layered new album Caribenya is a portmanteau of “Caribe”—referring to the Indigenous Caribbean population—and “Enya,” in homage to the “aspirational” enigma. Pimiento, who likes to listen to Enya as she writes, shares a certain gift for visual songcraft steeped in vivid storytelling. Both artists are skilled conjurers of atmosphere; some of the more ethereal passages on Caribenya even sail close to the wind of what you might call ambient-cumbia.

Opening with a chamber-pop lullaby (love song “Arrúllame”), Caribenya doesn’t take long to get into its rhythmic stride with the loping syncopations of “Tóxica”—a song about a “manipulative” person who “always wants more”—and eventually leads us to the dancefloor by way of a deep-voiced sonidero. From “Tóxica,” we’re taken on a journey through Caribbean joy, from the airy flutes of “Libélula,” which features Puerto Rican artist Ana Macho, to the tropical synths of “Talento” and the syrupy, cumbia rebajada-tinged art pop of “Hoy Por Tí,” which features none other than Grammy Award-winning Canadian singer and songwriter Nelly Furtado, and has more than a sprinkling of heavenly Enya moments.

Woven together with Mexican cumbia collective Turbo Sonidero and Persian-British producer Arrabalero of Grupo Jejeje, Caribenya is radiant with life and creativity, intended to serve as a collaborative counterpart to Pimienta’s 2025 nine-track orchestral suite La Belleza—for which she worked with fellow Polaris Prize-winning artist Owen Pallett and the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra. An immersive listen from start to finish, the LP traces a line back to the Latin American and Caribbean anti-colonial narratives and Afro-Indigenous rhythms previously explored by the acclaimed Barranquilla artist while going straight for the hips: a steamy summer adventure full of romance and ass-shaking.