By AB Contributor Writer | December 6, 2022

The Venezuelan band releases their last song of the year
and invites us to remember summer days.
In addition, they are celebrating having won
3 Premios Pepsi in September, a European tour with Cultura Profética, and a recent collaboration with Okills

This last quarter of the year has been anything but quiet for the Caracas-based band Anakena. After winning three awards at the 10th edition of the Premios Pepsi Music Awards at the end of September, and being the opening act for the Puerto Rican reggae band Cultura Profética during their successful tour through 6 cities in Europe, the Venezuelan group aims to end the year on a high note with one last release of their own.

“Bikini” is nothing but an ode to summer, the beach, heat, salt, and the ocean waves. It’s that nostalgia that we all feel when we have to wear jackets and scarves again, and we fondly look at photos from vacation in our camera reel while we’re on our way to work. In this song Anakena goes back to their beginnings, pursuing minimalism and the most acoustic sounds as a guideline as much as in the production as in the composition. “In this track we dared to play again with a more relaxed and beachy feeling to try to recreate what the lyrics describe: revisiting summer afternoons on our favorite beach,” shares Mara, the band’s percussionist.

This song is the first of two bonus tracks that will be included on the Deluxe version of the albums Carita Triste and Carita Feliz, whose release is scheduled for February of next year and that will include, in addition to these two new songs, a compilation of extra material such as remixes and live and acoustic recordings.

“Bikini” is released alongside a music video in vertical format created in sequence shots, where viewers can watch as Mikel, the band’s singer, is transported from a cold park in Madrid to a paradisiacal beach on Margarita Island. The video was directed by Santiago de la Fuente, the band’s guitarist, in co-direction with Andrés de Tovar for the shots in Spain and Tuto Rodríguez for the shots captured in Venezuela. Both Andrés and Tuto are constant audiovisual collaborators for the band, and both have directed the vast majority of Anakena’s music videos.

Next year looks promising for the Caribbean pop band, who on their social media accounts have already been hinting at a new album and a possible international tour for mid-2023.

video thumbnails al borde

“Click the image to watch the video”

More about Anakena:

Anakena is a Venezuelan Caribbean pop band founded at the end of 2016 and formed by Santiago de la Fuente, Carlos “Mara” González, Mikel Maury and Antonio Romero.

So far, the group has released two full recordings: El Mar (EP, 2016) and Anakena (album, 2019), both self-produced. During their four years as a band, the Venezuelan musicians have accumulated more than 10 million streams on digital platforms and have brought their music to more than 200 stages, 14 cities and five countries. Their song “Montaña Rusa” won the award for Best Reggae Song at the 8th edition of Premios Pepsi Music and “Sanguchito” took the number 1 spot on the Venezuelan radio chart in 2020.

Anakena’s new recording era began in October 2020 with the release of their successful single “Carita Triste,” produced by the duo SanLuis and whose innovative blend between bachata and trap brought the band to the most important national radio stations and to HTV Latino’s Hot Ranking. Since then, the band has released six singles from the album, which include “Clara” with the renowned Colombian group Alkilados and “Baby Beach” with the Málaga-born brothers Javypablo.

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