National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

Listen To Manu Chao's New La Colifata Album Here

Latin Alternative godfather Manu Chao announced the release of a new project called La Colifata today. The new album was recorded in support of a unique radio station that broadcasts from a psychiatric hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Known as La Colifata, the hospital's station was created in 1991 as a unique establishment that uses mass media (both television and radio) as therapeutic treatment, somewhere between clinical and social treatment. It is a resource between the clinical and external worlds that allows the patients - known as "Los Colifatos" - to recreate the social link with people living outside the hospital.

Manu Chao, a sometimes resident of Buenos Aires, has been working with La Colifata for five years, and produced this album recorded by the station's members. The project features 20 Songs about "life, death, mothers, loneliness, love, tango, The Pope, the end of the world, the sun, and crazy grandmas".

"La Colifata is quite a special station as it is broadcast from a psychiatric hospital," Chao said in a press statement. "With the help of a few friends, the patients decided to launch this radio station to express themselves. To relieve everything they have inside, and to speak to the world. While I met them five or six years ago, the station has been running this way for more than 15 years. I simply could not believe it when I read their stories." The hospital's residents also appeared in the Emir Kusturiça-directed music video for Chao's 2008 song "Rainin' In Paradize."

Chao and La Colifata also launched a website in order to help the station and hospital with their unique approach. Fans can purchase the album with a "pay what you want" donation.