Adiemus Colores, Karl Jenkins's first recording on the Deutsche Grammophon label, sees him exploring the vibrancy and colour of Latin American music.

Adiemus Colores marks Karl Jenkins’s return after ten years to the series that helped make his name – Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary has sold over 1.5 million albums worldwide. The new disc includes the composer's first collaborations with tenor Rolando Villazón and classical guitarist Milos Karadaglic and shows Jenkins seeking inspiration from the sights, sounds, colours and rhythms of Latin American music:

“I have always been intrigued by the traditional music of Latin America. I initially came to its exotic and flamboyant world via recordings of Afro-Cuban jazz. Later I came to love the music of Antônio Carlos Jobim from Brazil and also Ástor Piazzolla from Argentina. When performing with jazz fusion band Nucleus, we shared the stage with Sérgio Mendes and Brasil ’66 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, and I wrote some arrangements for Gilberto Gil when he first came to the UK. Later I produced and orchestrated some music by the Argentinian classical composer Carlos Guastavino for Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

“Another South American spark that helped kindle the flame that became Adiemus Colores is the fascination that the people of Wales, myself included, have with the romance of Patagonia – that area occupying the southernmost tip of Argentina where there is a Welsh-speaking settlement, dating from 1865. In fact the Welsh word for this area, Y Wladfa, translates as ‘The Colony’. Adiemus Colores is music of fantasy which happily embraces elements of South American culture.”
Karl Jenkins