HUMANFOLK[1] is the musical collaboration and concept band of guitarist-composer, Johnny Alegre with the New York based Fil-Am percussionist, Susie Ibarra[2] and her husband, drummer Roberto Juan Rodriguez, together with the multi-instrumentalist Cynthia Alexander and the electronica exponent, Malek Lopez. This collective is a pioneering effort marking the convergence in a contemporary Philippine setting of multiple musical idioms[3][4] (jazz, rock, electronic music, kulintang, agung and indigenous percussion, with Iberian and folk music influences). The group's name is a deliberate conjoining of the words, "human folk", akin to menfolk[5] and womenfolk[6], without prejudice to gender, and frequently set in all caps to distinguish it from a dictionary term.
Assembled in the summer of 2008, the introduction of Alegre, Ibarra and Rodriguez at the United States Embassy in Manila spurred a series of musical and social interactions culminating in the recording sessions for "Humanfolk Suite", a world music cycle by Alegre performed alongside Alexander and Lopez. Towards October, 2008, the Humanfolk threesome of Alegre, Alexander and Lopez performed a live semi-improvised score for a short, silent film by Sasha Palomares,[7] entitled "Une Femme Andalouse", which was awarded the KODAK Best 16mm Experimental Film in that year by the Kodak Filmschool Competition. They were subsequently invited to perform at the 4th Philippine International Jazz & Ethnic Arts Festival in February, 2009,[8] and a live collaborative performance with the Australian didgeredoo virtuoso, William Barton in January, 2010, that also introduced vocalist-keyboardist Abby Clutario as a new principal member of the group. These high profile appearances and many others that followed were milestones leading to the release by MCA Music (Universal Music Group) of Humanfolk's eponymous album[9] in May, 2011.