Timeless Inti draws on Latin origins

In theory, the music of Chilean group Inti Illimani should sound painfully anachronistic, even obsolete. Judging by the veteran band’s performance on Friday, the first of two evenings at Cal State Northridge’s Performance Arts Center, it is anything but.

It was in the early ‘70s that the exiled members of Inti became symbols of the “nueva cancion” (new song) movement, using their rustic, populist anthems as a subtle but powerful condemnation of the bloody military regimes that burdened Latin America at the time.

Thirty years later, those regimes are long gone, replaced by troubled democracies. An old favorite at Inti’s past concerts, the slogan “El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido” (the united people will never be defeated) sounds somewhat naive today.

But the group’s music has aged remarkably well, probably because it has always drawn from the stunning beauty of South America’s traditional genres.

Now an octet including a number of newly recruited musicians young enough to be the sons of the remaining original members, Inti boasts so many talented multi-instrumentalists that it can effortlessly bring a semi-orchestral flavor to the material at hand.

On “Un Son Para Portinari,” for instance, the band paid tribute to Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari by embellishing its trademark combination of string instruments (guitar, bass, charango) with delightful touches of flute, violin, clarinet and the beat of a Peruvian cajon.

Inti’s delicately arranged, mostly acoustic sound is not the stuff that makes for great party music. But the group’s repertoire, which on Friday included a traditional cumbia and plenty of Andean melodies, is marked by an exuberant feeling of contentment and emotional openness.

In Inti Illimani’s hands, Latin American folklore feels like the bone-breaking hug of a long-lost friend who is simply overjoyed to see you again.