Fil-Canadian queer girl group reclaims identity with kulintang music
Photo from Pantayo/Instagram
Make way for supergirl gong gang Pantayo. The Toronto-based Filipino-Canadian group released their latest album, “Pagdaloy” at the tail end of June. Now they’re bringing their fresh spins on kulintang music to a string of shows across Canada from July to August.
Pantayo is a diasporic queer five-piece consisting of Eirene Cloma (vocals, bass, guitar), Michelle Cruz (vocals, agong, synth), Joanna Delos Reyes (vocals), Kat Estacio (agong, kulintang, sarunay, synth, drum programming, auxiliary percussion), and Katrina Estacio (kulintang, sarunay, synth, auxiliary percussion).
Kat Estacio says on the Q’s Tom Power podcast that the members came together for a purpose, and it’s to “learn more about our culture, what it means to be Filipino, what it means to be a Filipino person in Toronto, and how we can explore our culture through music.”
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The big move gave birth to Pantayo
Estacio grew up in Manila and described the kulintang gong-chime ensemble of Southern Philippines as gorgeous instruments that “maybe wasn’t intentionally gatekept, but was.”
It wasn’t until she moved to Toronto that she found a passion for the instrument and the drive to honor her roots through it. “Conversations about diasporic identity was kind of a culture shock for me. Because I never had to think about what being Filipino meant before,” she said.
Their sophomore album “Pagdaloy” is still a product of that search as “an intricately constructed collage that rejects narrow definitions, and instead, mirrors the properties of water—taking inspiration from its shape-shifting elements, devotion to organic paths of least resistance, and desire to let go and flow.”
And you can catch them perform new tracks like “One More Latch (Give It To ‘Ya)” and “Dreams” on these dates:
- July 14 to 16 at the Folk On The Rocks Music Festival in Yellowknife, Northern Territories
- July 20 to 23 at the River and Sky Music/Camping Festival in Field, Ontario
- July 27 to 30 at the Calgary Folk Music Festival in Alberta
- Aug. 11 to 13 at the Regina Folk Festival in Saskatchewan
Fans of the band may even have their fingers crossed for possible screenings of their short film “Huwag Mataranta.” It was directed by fellow queer Fil-Canadian artist Tricia Hagoriles, which was presented last June 28. One can dream.
