Monsieur Periné is a Bogota-based musical ensemble from Colombia with an Afro-Colombian sound that mixes Latin and European flavours. Lead singer Catalina Algafloja sings in a mixture of Spanish, French, English and Portuguese. Other members include Santiago Prieto, who plays the charango, violin, and guitar; Eva Peroni on the bass; Jairo Alfonso on the winds (primarily saxophone and clarinet); Abstin Caviedes on the trombone and bugle; Miguel Guerra on percussion; and Darwin Paez on the drumset.
The main members of the group played together for the first time during Holy Week in 2007, in Villa de Leyva, a small town near Bogotá. Later, García, Santiago Prieto, Nicolás Junca and Camilo Parra (an early member who would later quit), began getting together frequently to play songs from various Latin American genres as well as jazz, which eventually prompted them to begin searching for their own voice. During 2009 and 2010, they began performing locally in Bogotá; in 2009, they performed in several local music festivals. At the end of 2010, the group began composing its own original songs, recording “Ton Silence” and “Swing with Me”.
The band released their first single, “La Muerte”, recorded with Felipe Álvarez, who works with artists such as Shakira and Bomba Estéreo. The radio station Radiónica named the song “Song of the Year”, which was key in the development of the band. In 2012, the band released its first music video for their song “Suin Romanticon”. In 2015, Camilo Parra left the band to work on his new project, Astrolabio. In 2015, drummer Alejandro Giuliani left the band, citing disagreements. The last to leave the project was Rivas Ramirez, the designer of the band’s image as well as all of its costumes between 2010 and 2015.
The name of the group arose from Prieto’s reading of Michel Houellebecq’s The Elementary Particles, which discusses the perinee. The word became a joke among the group, and thus the original name was simply “Periné”. García, who initially opposed the name, later added the word “Monsieur”, referencing the idea that everything that is French is elegant and refined. The group began with minor performances at weddings, corporate parties, and cocktail parties. They began to gain recognition in the auditorium of the Alianza Francesa, where they performed a cover of the movie The Triplets of Belleville, winning a competition focused on young talent. After this, David González and Miguel Guerra joined the group as double bassist and percussionist, respectively. They began performing at more major events at this time.
The first years of Monsieur Periné’s existence served as an experimental period, during which the group sought to find their own style. They became more well-known among the public following wins in two competitions, that of the Urock de Universia and El Ensayadero de Red Bull, where they performed “Be Pop”. With this triumph they received a place at the Estereo Picnic Festival, after which Daniel Chebeir joined the band; however, he left two years later, citing personal issues. This left a vacancy in the drummer role, which would be filled by Argentinian Alejandro Giuliani, who accompanied the group on their European tour.
