Ensamble Polifonicos Vallenato was a short-lived, ad hoc band made up of university students in Bogota who came together in 1998 as a protest to their school's music curriculum and Colombian popular music. Some of its members included Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers), Mario Galleano (Ondatropica), and Maria Angelica Valencia (Asdrubal). Initially, they were rock and R&B musicians who had been deeply influenced by the spirit and music of psychedelia, R&B, and punk, but had individually been moved by the classic Colombian vallenato songs of the 1940s and '50s. Collectively, they wanted to force the music department to include its study alongside those of classical and jazz. Additionally, they wanted to offer an underground alternative to Colombia's '90s string- and horn- laden pop that later became known as "vallenato romantico." Their only recordings were compiled with those of their next collective, Sexteto La Constelacion de Colombia, and released on the Staubgold volume Fiesta, Que Viva La in 2014. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi