It’s raw, noisy and electric one moment and sweet, sad and soulful the next. They sound like no one else, and maybe that’s because San Lazaro come from an unexpected corner of the world: Melbourne, Australia.

How did the continent of kangaroos and deserts come to contribute such arresting Spanish language songwriting and dazzling musicianship?

“It’s all about Serindipity,” according to San Lazaro’s lead singer, Keko Viran.

This unlikely group of musicians met in the melting pot of inner city Melbourne, where chance brought musicians with a bizzare array of backgrounds together. From Chile to India to Cuba to Outback Australia, San Lazaro is an all singing, all dancing tower of Babel, who cut their teeth on the standards of salsa and mambo, and are respectful inheritors of those traditions, but now stand alone as providers of a truly individual Latin sound.