Pantayo
Pantayo is an all-women kulintang ensemble based in Toronto. They combine percussive metallophones and drums from kulintang traditions of Southern Philippines with electronic and synth-based grooves. They also offer music and cultural workshops to teach kulintang, and are currently part of the Prologue for the Performing Arts 2020-21 Artist Roster. Pantayo
explores the possibility of kulintang through their experiences as queer diasporic Filipinas.
Past notable projects include performances at Vancouver New Music, Halifax Jazz Festival, Nuit Blanche Toronto, Canada150, X Avant Festival, Wavelength Festival; KuliVersity gong/percussion workshops with Girls Rock Camp Toronto in partnership with Toronto Public Library and at Tone Deaf Festival Kingston; and a collaboration with YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN for Severed video game soundtrack (Drinkbox Studios, 2016).
They were nominated for the 2020 Polaris Music Prize Shortlist, and were featured in Pitchfork (2020) Bandcamp (2020), Exclaim! Magazine (2020), The Globe and Mail (2020), Pan M 360 (2020), Dominionated (2020), Tone Glow (2020), Consequence of Sound (2020), Vancouver’s The Georgia Straight (2019), Now Magazine’s Toronto musicians to watch in 2018: Indie Edition, a cover story in Musicworks Magazine (Summer/Fall 2017), CBC Music for International Women’s Day (2017), and Noisey (2016).
Pantayo released their debut record in May 2020 under Telephone Explosion Records.