Manu Chao has always been an iconoclast, from his inclusive, multilingual blend of punk and world sounds to his tireless quest for spreading his ethos of justice and understanding via music-as-protest. But when we heard about his new project – recording an album with a bunch of psychiatric patients – we were understandably intrigued….

It goes a little something like this: Chao discovered “Radio Loony” in Argentina, and was immediately inspired. “Radio Loony,” or Radio La Colifata as it is known in Español, is a radio station started by Jose Gorda, a psychiatric asylum based in Buenos aires, maintained to give the patients there a voice beyond their confines.  Despite its unlikely beginnings, Radio Loony became a hit, gaining a listenership of twelve million! Not surprisingly, Chao was beguiled by this provocative – and successful – social experiment; after visiting Jose Gorda, he decided to make an album with the residents.

The results, entitled Viva La Colifata, can be downloaded for free here – although there is also a space to make a donation. The album itself is one of the year’s true surprises: a kind of blend between the Clash’s opus Sandinista! and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s nest, it is sprawling, compelling, and moving. Voices interweave, skanking rhythms lock in and out, and words in Spanish trail poetically through topics of life, love and the everyday as seen through a prism that doesn’t often see much light. The results are lilting, affecting and unique – a transmission from a radio station that no one ever expected would exist, but should. Manu Chao stumbled on a very real moment of music therapy, and now we all can enjoy its benefits.