At the Babel library and bookstore in Lima, Peru, Susana Baca is surrounded by books, wine and percussion. In addition to their instruments, her band members play the desk they sit around itself, an organic setting that blurs the boundaries between music and context. “Estamos aqui, todos unidos por la música en este bello pupitre,” she laughs: “We’re here, all united by music at this beautiful desk.” In addition to being a musician, Baca has worked as an ethnomusicologist, a schoolteacher and Peru’s former Minister of Culture; she’s a curator of folklore and culture of the highest order. Throughout her El Tiny performance, the camera shifts to an overhead shot of the desk, featuring her 2021 album Palabras Urgentes beside several books and a note that says “Eres lo que lees” (You are what you read). Her performance, like all of her music, is intimate because it’s situated, musically and thematically, in a specific time and place.
