Cama de Frailejón, A Heartwarming Collaborative Single
03 May, 2025I give Colombian musician Masilva a call while he is in La Jagua, Cesár, podcasting with La Rotativa, a photography collective made up of ex-combatants.
His latest single, “Cama de Frailejón“, released on Tambora records at the end of April, is a comforting, hopeful and inspiring track about hanging in there when you feel lost, and keeping warm to feed the fire in your heart.
It is set in the mountainous, spongy Colombian páramo ecosystem where the cold can reach below freezing and the mist blurs your vision. “No se ve claramente el sendero, quédate quieta,” Masilva sings on the track [You can’t see the path in front of you, but hang in there]. “Hazte una cama de frailejón pero de los de la hojita chiquita, arrópate con la ruanita,” [Make yourself a bed of frailejón leaves, the small ones, put on a woolen ruana]. “Tu manténte caliente, que no se apague el fuego de tu corazón,” [Keep yourself warm, so the fire in your heart doesn’t burn out].
Although the song features distinctly Colombian symbols, like the frailejón plant only found in the páramos, and the ruana, a poncho to keep you warm, it is a collaboration between Colombian and Uruguayan musicians. The track is led by Masilva’s comforting vocals and acoustic guitar by Uruguayan musician Pino Arocena, it features flourishes of mandolin by Leo Castiblanco and warm electric guitar by Carlos Mendoza.
Masilva told me, “These two Uruguayan musicians were in Bogotá seeking out collaborations with local artists. The idea was to get together in the studio over one day and create something. We met, got together in Tambora studios, and the song came together really quickly. The lyrics came intuitively.
“When we began composing, we just started with the guitar and vocals, and then we began adding the layers. We recorded it in two takes. Then they took the recording to Uruguay where the song was finished, with percussion recorded locally there and the final bits of production.”
The voice guides the song with its reassuring, motivational lyrics, speaking directly to the listener. “It could be a person but it could also be an energy. I always imagined the voice as a feminine force.”
In the final chapter of the song, the energy builds with a big chorus: “It gives you hope,” Masilva says.
“When we composed the song I was in a place where I wasn’t really sure what was going on nor where I was headed musically… or even if I wanted to continue with music or not. The idea of the song is that you might be lost, but sometimes, if you don’t know what to do, the best thing is to do nothing. To stay still. Observe. Don’t try to do too much, don’t force it.”
The track is congruous with Masilva’s recent acoustic album Lucecita de Tiempo, but it is a single, a standalone collaboration.
The video was made by Lucas Rodríguez, a filmmaker from Colombia’s Boyaca region who has worked with the likes of Julieta Venegas, Andrea Echeverry and Nación Ekeko. The video was recorded in a páramo nature reserve in Boyaca full of frailejones. “I wrote to Lucas and we came up with some ideas, but the video is his. I don’t feature. It’s his art,” Masilva told me.
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