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Laura Robles (Cajón, Batás, Congas, E-Bass) was born in 1981 in Swaziland, Africa and grew up in Peru. At the age of four, she started to access the rich Afro-Peruvian musical tradition through the teachings of master Amador “Chebo” Ballumbrosio. After this, Juan "Cotito"  Medrano (internationally known for his work with Susana Baca) took her under his wing. At the age of 13 she was accepted at Susana Baca's "Instituto Negro Continuo", intensively studying Cuban folklore and popular music as well as the complex music of the Yoruba culture. For ten years now, Laura has been considered one of the most important players of the cajón in Peru, the central instrument of folklore that was influenced by West African percussion.


She founded the successful bands "Astrocombo" and "Stretch it to the Limit", as well as the socio-educational initiative "Parió Paula", played with theater and dance companies and some of the most renowned folk, jazz and rock musicians in Peru and at international festivals in Central and South America, the USA and Spain.


She moved to Berlin in 2012, where she won the City of Berlin's Studio Prize in 2014 with the Berlin version of her "Astrocombo". Since then she worked with Johannes Lauer, Joscha Oetz, Almut Kühne, Ahmed Soura, Uli Kempendorff, Greg Cohen, Simon Nabatov, Niels Klein, Pablo Held Trio, Wanja Slavin, Christian Weidner, Bodek Janke, MORF, DUS-TI, Berlin Art Orchestra and Lauer Large.



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