MESTIZX

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((( Images by Alejandro Ayala )))

Album Credits

Compositions: Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly

Lyrics: Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti except “Bless Thee Mundane” by Viktor Le Givens & “Sirinus” text excerpt from Diablos tentadores y Pinkillus embriagadores …en la fiesta de Anata/Phujllay - Bolivia by Henry Stobart, edited & compiled by Arnaud Gérard

Producers: Matt Lux, Frank Rosaly, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Dave Vettraino

Executive Producer: Scott McNiece 

Recording and mixing: Dave Vettraino

Additional Recording: Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti, Frank Rosaly, Chris Doyle

Mastering: David Allen

Design/Layout: Craig Hansen

Photos: GUMO (covers) & Omaira Tapia (insert)

Recorded at International Anthem Studios, Chicago, and Molk Factory, Amsterdam, with additional recording in La Paz & Cochabamba, Bolivia, and Fajardo, Puerto Rico, 2023.

1. INVOCAÇÃO

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti – voice; Frank Rosaly - mbira, drums, synthesizers, Octatrack; Chris Doyle - piano

  • Voy a buscar
    las semillas que
    las cargan a ellas
    las voces de las abuelas

    Voy a caminar
    seguir de cerca las estrellas
    que me guían
    para escucharlas

    Solo voy a bailar
    después de la invocación
    y si ellas vienen
    les preguntaré

    Cómo fué su caminar
    en la tierra, cuáles fueron
    sus sueños y sus
    miedos mujer

    Solo quiero ver
    sus ojos, y que me
    transporten a su
    tiempo vivir

    Barrer el polvo, lamer el polvo, limpiar el polvo
    Barrer el polvo, lamer el polvo, limpiar el polvo
    Barriendo los secretos
    Limpiando trapos sucios con lágrimas. Silencio
    El polvo
    Que entra y ciega, ellas bailan, ellas pelean, ellas juegan
    Que entra y ciega, ellas bailan, ellas pelean, ellas juegan
    Que charla
    Te veo, me veo, te beso
    Te veo, me veo, te beso
    Abriendo las puertas de tiempos olvidados, borrados por vergüenza, por ceguera
    Déjame ver tus sueños
    ¡Déjeme ver! tus miedos

    Abriendo las puertas de tiempos olvidados, borrados por vergüenza, por ceguera
    Déjame ver tus sueños
    ¡Déjeme ver! tus miedos
    Lloro
    Deja el tiempo
    Yo lo estoy dejando
    me voy
    construyendo
    cargando
    dejando
    olvidando
    plantando
    regando
    hueco
    Entrando
    sin fin

  • I will search 
    for the seeds that
    carry them
    the voices of the grandmothers 

    I am going to walk
    follow closely
    The stars that guide me
    to be able to listen to them

    I am just going to dance
    after the invocation
    and if they come
    I am going to ask

    How was their walk
    on the land, which were
    their dreams and their
    fears, women fears. 

    I just want to see
    their eyes and let them 
    transport me to their
    life time 

    Sweeping dust, licking dust, dusting dust
    Sweeping dust, licking dust, dusting dust
    Sweeping away the secrets
    Cleaning dirty cloths with tears. Silence.
    The dust
    Which enters and blinds, they dance, fight, play

    Which enters and blinds, they dance, fight, play
    What a talk!
    I see you, I see myself, I kiss you
    I see you, I see myself, I kiss you
    Opening the doors of forgotten times, erased by shame, by blindness
    Let me see your dreams
    Let me see! your fears

    Opening the doors of forgotten times, erased by shame, by blindness
    Let me see your dreams
    Let me see! your fears
    I cry
    Stop the time
    I am leaving
    building
    carrying
    leaving
    forgetting
    planting
    watering
    hole
    entering 
    endlessly

  • Eu vou procurar
    as sementes que
    carregam elas
    as vocês das vós

    Eu vou caminhar
    seguir de perto as estrelas
    que me guiam
    pra escutar elas

    Eu só vou dançar
    trás a invocação
    e se elas virem
    eu vou perguntar

    Como foi seu caminhar
    na terra, quais foram
    seus sonhos e seus
    medos mulher

    Eu só quero ver
    seus olhos e que me
    transportem ao seu
    tempo de viver

    Varrendo o pó, lambendo o pó, limpando o pó
    Varrendo o pó, lambendo o pó, limpando o pó
    Varrendo os segredos
    Limpando panos sujos com lágrimas. Silêncio.
    O pó
    Que entra cega, elas dançam, brigam, brincam
    Que entra cega, elas dançam, brigam, brincam
    Que papo
    Te vejo, me vejo, te beijo
    Te vejo, me vejo, te beijo
    Abrindo as portas de tempos esquecidos, borrados por vergonha, por cegueira
    Me deixa ver seus sonhos
    Me deixa ver! seus medos

    Abrindo as portas de tempos esquecidos, borrados por vergonha, por cegueira
    Me deixa ver seus sonhos
    Me deixa ver! seus medos
    Choro
    Deixa o tempo
    Eu to deixando
    construindo
    levando
    deixando
    esquecendo
    plantando
    regando
    buraco
    Entrar
    sem fim

2. DESTEJER

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti - voice, Farfisa, Prophet; Frank Rosaly - drums, percussion, synthesizers; Chris Doyle - Hammond, Philicorda, MS-20; Ben LaMar Gay – cornet; Rob Frye – flute; Matt Lux - electric bass; Mikel Patrick Avery - tamborine, caxixi

  • Remendando mis palabras, abrazo
    el saber de mi cuerpo, destejer
    la homogeneidad, acudo
    a las diferencias, el presente.

    El presente conjura el pasado
    que informa el futuro
    Esquivo la trampa, no soy
    materia prima, raízes.

    Remendando mis palabras abrazo
    Destejiendo la homogeneidad acudo
    El presente conjura el pasado que informa el futuro
    Yo esquivo la trampa no soy materia prima

    Raíces tentaculares me llevan a mis ancestros
    Tectónicos Tectónicos
    Raíces tentaculares me llevan a mis ancestros
    Tectónicos Tectónicos Tectónicos

    Remendando mis palabras, abrazo
    el saber de mi cuerpo, destejer
    la homogeneidad, acudo
    a las diferencias, el presente.

    Esquivo la trampa, no soy
    Materia prima
    Raizes

  • Mending my words, I embrace
    the knowledge of my body, to unweave
    the homogeneity, I turn up
    to the differences, the present.

    The present conjures the past
    that informs the future
    I dodge the trap
    I am not raw material, roots.

    Mending my words, I witness
    Unweaving the homogeneity, I attend
    The present conjures the past that informs the future
    I dodge the trap, I am not raw material

    Tentacular roots, they take me to my ancestors
    Tectonic ancestors Tectonic ancestors Tentacular roots, they take me to my ancestors
    Tectonic Tectonic Tectonic ancestors

    Mending my words, I embrace
    the knowledge of my body, unweaving
    the homogeneity, I turn up
    to the differences, the present.

    I dodge the trap, I am not
    raw material
    Roots

  • Remendando minhas palavras, abraço
    o conhecimento do meu corpo, desfazendo
    a homogeneidade, eu vou
    às diferenças, o presente.

    O presente evoca o passado
    que informa o futuro
    Eu evito a armadilha, não sou
    matéria-prima, raízes.

    Remendando minhas palavras abraço
    Desfazendo a homogeneidade eu acudo
    O presente evoca o passado que informa o futuro
    Eu esquivo a armadilha, não sou matéria-prima

    Raízes tentaculares me levam aos meus ancestrais
    Tectônicos Tectônicos
    Raízes tentaculares me levam aos meus ancestrais
    Tectônicos Tectônicos Tectônicos

    Remendando minhas palavras, abraço
    o conhecimento do meu corpo, desfazendo
    a homogeneidade, eu vou
    Às diferenças, o presente.

    Eu evito a armadilha, não sou
    Matéria prima
    Raizes

3) BALADA PARA LA CORPORATOCRACIA

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti - voice, Buchla, effects, percussion; Frank Rosaly - drums, percussion; Matt Lux - electric bass, effect pedals; Daniel Villarreal - congas, percussion

  • Ellos mienten y se ríen
    de todo lo acumulado
    se pasan el día a día
    excavando y excavando

    Todo lo que han quemado
    y lo que han enterrado
    para que ya nadie vea
    todo lo que han destrozado

    Sacan

    No nos olvidamos
    No nos olvidamos
    No nos olvidamos
    Nunca olvidamos

    Sacan

    Ellos borran las memorias
    al sacar los viejos huesos
    arrebatan las historias
    y se llevan lo que sobra

    Después ya no sobra nada
    ni migajas de aire puro
    nos re-venden lo excavado
    y nos llaman los domados

    Sacan

  • They lie and laugh
    of everything accumulated
    they spend day after day
    digging and digging

    Everything that they have burned
    and what they have buried
    so that no one sees it
    everything they have destroyed

    They take out

    No, we do not forget
    No, we do not forget
    No, we do not forget
    We never forget

    They take out

    They take out

    They erase the memories
    when removing the old bones
    they snatch the stories
    and they take away what is left

    Afterwards there is nothing left over
    not even crumbs of fresh air
    They resell us what they have excavated
    and they call us the tamed ones

    They take out

  • Eles mentem e riem
    de tudo o acumulado
    eles passam seus dias
    escavando e escavando

    Tudo o que eles queimaram
    e o que eles enterraram
    para que ninguém veja
    tudo o que eles destruíram

    Eles tiram

    Nós não esquecemos
    Nós não esquecemos
    Nós não esquecemos
    nós nunca esquecemos

    Eles tiram

    Eles apagam as memórias
    ao remover os ossos velhos
    eles arrebatam as histórias
    e eles pegam o que sobra

    Depois não sobra nada
    nem migalhas de ar fresco
    Eles nos revendem o que escavaram
    e eles nos chamam os domesticados

    Eles tiram

4. TURBULÊNCIA

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti - voice, effects, acoustic guitar, guiro; Frank Rosaly - drums, congas, percussion, synthesizers; Chris Doyle - Hammond, Philicorda; Bill MacKay - electric guitar; Matt Lux - electric bass; Mikel Patrick Avery - penny whistles

  • ¡Nuestro camino fuera del desorden!

    Lo que se está rompiendo
    Lo ciclico
    El poder de la tierra

    La turbulencia
    La disonancia
    El poder localizado

    Las voces silenciadas
    El desorden
    La miseria

    El canibalismo
    la ceguera

    Los desarraigados
    Las conformidades

    ¿Con qué oídos elegimos escuchar?

    ¿Con qué manos elegimos esculpir?
    ¡Nuestra salida de este desorden!

    Nuestra forma de saber

  • Our way out of the mess!

    What is breaking
    the cyclical
    the power of the earth

    The turbulence
    the dissonance
    the localized power

    The silenced voices
    The mess
    the misery

    The cannibalism
    the blindness

    The uprooted ones
    the conformities

    With which ears do we choose to listen?

    With which hands do we choose to carve?
    our way out of the mess

    Our way of knowing

  • Nosso caminho fora da bagunça!

    O que se está quebrando
    O ciclico
    O poder da terra

    A turbulência
    A dissonância
    O poder localizado

    As vozes silenciadas
    A bagunça
    A miseria

    O canibalismo
    A cegueira

    Os desenraizados
    As conformidades

    Com que ouvido a gente escolhe ouvir?

    Com que mãos escolhemos esculpir?
    nosso caminho fora da bagunça!

    Nossa maneira de saber

5. MESTIZX

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti - voice, guitar, Wurlitzer, Prophet; Frank Rosaly - Elektron Analog 4, synthesisers, pandeiro; Chris Doyle – piano; Bill MacKay - guitar, electric guitar; Mikel Patrick Avery - chacapa, cowbell, woodblock, shakers

  • Soy la herida y la medicina
    Soy el problema y soy la respuesta
    Soy el veneno y el antídoto

    Soy la bestia y soy hermosura
    Soy liberación y mutilación
    Soy oscuridad y soy humildad

    Soy conquistada soy conquistadora
    Soy conquistada soy conquistadora

    Soy la opresión y soy el gemido
    Soy la que grita y soy la que escucha

    Soy composto cósmico
    Soy arena de estrellas

    Soy guerra soy maestra
    Soy puño soy perdón
    Soy guerra soy maestra
    Soy puño soy perdón

  • I am the wound and the medicine
    I am the problem and I am the answer
    I am the poison and I am the antidote

    I am the beast and I am beauty
    I am liberation and I am mutilation
    I am darkness and I am humility

    I am the conquered I am the conqueror
    I am the conquered I am the conqueror

    I am the oppression and I am the moan
    I am the one who screams and I am the one who listens
    I am cosmic compost
    I am stardust

    I am the war I am the teacher
    I am the fist I am the forgiveness
    I am the war I am the teacher
    I am the fist I am the forgiveness

  • Eu sou a ferida e o remédio
    Eu sou o problema e sou a resposta
    Eu sou o veneno e o antídoto

    Eu sou a fera e sou a bela
    Eu sou libertação e mutilação
    Eu sou escuridão e sou humildade

    Es sou a conquistada e eu sou a conquistadora
    Es sou a conquistada e eu sou a conquistadora

    Eu sou a opressão e sou o gemido
    Sou eu quem grita e sou eu quem ouve
    Eu sou composto cósmico
    Eu sou areia de estrelas

    Eu sou a guerra, sou uma maestra
    Eu sou um punho, eu sou o perdão
    Eu sou a guerra, sou uma maestra
    Eu sou um punho, eu sou o perdão

6. BARRO

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti - voice, pandereta; Frank Rosaly - drums, synthesizers, drum machine programming, percussion, pandereta; Chris Doyle - piano, synthesizers

  • Todo lo que encarna
    Tiene su propia sombra

    Libre sin carga
    Rechazando captura y ruptura

    Una invitación a encontrarse
    En el tejido presente
    Convirtiéndose en lluvia en barro y silencio

    Renazco a través de cien nudos que
    duermen entre abismos y grietas
    busco lo visionario que me une
    A las voces de mis ancestros
    comuno con lo invisible
    que da la vida
    despierto con el asombro
    de lo que se ha destejido en mi ver

    Todo cuerpo tiene su sombra
    libre sin carga en la vida está

  • All that has been embodied
    has its own shadow

    Free with no burden
    refusing capture and rupture

    An invitation to find ourselves
    in the fabric of the present
    Becoming rain, mud and silence

    I reborn through a hundred knots that
    are asleep between abysses and cracks
    I search for the visionary that binds
    the voices of my ancestors
    I commune with the invisible
    that gives life
    I wake up in wonder
    Of what has been unwoven in my sight

    Every body has its shadow
    Free of burden, within the living exists

  • Tudo o que se incorpora
    tem sua própria sombra

    Livre, sem carga
    Recusando captura e ruptura

    Um convite para conhecer
    o tecido do presente
    Transformando-se em chuva em lama e silêncio

    Renasço através de cem nós que
    dormem entre abismos e rachaduras
    Procuro o visionário que une
    para as vozes dos meus antepassados
    Comungo com o invisível
    que dá vida
    Eu acordo com o assombro
    do que se desvendou na minha visão

    Todo corpo tem sua sombra
    livre sem carga, na vida está

7. SABER DO MAR

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti – voice; Frank Rosaly - drums, mbira, synthesizers, percussion; Chris Doyle – synthesizers; Bill MacKay – requinto; Mikel Patrick Avery – percussion

  • Las heridas vienen por los mares.
    nos ven
    abren cada rincón
    nos ven
    de pie, abren
    tu cielo y el mio

    Los mares cuentan las historias
    del cielo
    abre los portales del mundo
    y ven
    tu saber
    y abre el mío

  • Wounds come with the seas
    they see us
    they open every corner
    they see us
    they stand up and open
    your sky and mine

    The seas, they tell stories
    from the sky
    they open the portals of the world
    they see
    your knowledge
    and open mine

  • As feridas vem por mares
    nos vem
    elas abrem todos os cantos
    nos vem
    de pé, abrem
    teu céu e o meu

    Mares contam as histórias
    do céu
    abrem os portais do mundo
    e vem
    o teu saber
    abrem o meu

8. BLESS THEE MUNDANE

Frank Rosaly - drums, drum machine programming, synthesizers, guiro; Viktor Le Givens - voice message

9. DESCEND

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti - voice, effects, guiro, percussion; Frank Rosaly - drums, guiro; Matt Lux - electric bass; Chris Doyle - synthesizers

  • Buscando lugares de poder
    Yo desciendo a la tierra

    El futuro se abrirá
    una oportunidad para cambiar de forma

    No estamos en el centro
    una mirada a la otredad
    una multiplicidad de devenires

    Con qué parlamento de voces
    ¿Tenemos que sentarnos?
    para poder practicar
    nuestro morir

  • Seeking places of power
    I descend to the soil

    The future will come forth
    an opportunity to shape-shift

    We are not in the center
    a glimpse of the otherwise
    a multiplicity of becomings

    What parliament of voices
    Do we need to sit with…?
    In order to practice
    our dying

  • Procurando por lugares de poder
    eu descendo na terra

    O futuro se abrirá
    uma chance de mudar de forma

    Não estamos no centro
    um olhar para a alteridade
    uma multiplicidade de devires

    Com que parlamento de vozes
    Temos que nos sentar?
    para poder praticar
    nosso morrer

10. WRITING WITH KNOTS

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti - voice, Farfisa, lap harp, Prophet, bells; Frank Rosaly - drums, percussion, Elektron Analog 4, synthesizers; Chris Doyle - Pulse synth, MS-20; Matt Lux - bass six, electric bass; Ben LaMar Gay – cornet; Rob Frye – flute; Avreeayl Ra – drums

  • Romper
    permitir
    sentirse electrificado
    respirar
    no saber
    futurear
    enraizar
    cambiar
    para entrar en lugares subterráneos que se sientan como un hogar

    Mundeando encantamientos
    escribiendo con nudos
    yo conjuro
    el cruce de caminos
    oráculos
    de pasados migrantes, fugitivos, diaspóricos, móviles

    Permitir
    romper
    enraizar
    cambiar

    Mundeando encantamientos
    escribiendo con nudos
    Nosotros conjuramos
    el cruce de caminos
    oráculos
    de pasados migrantes, fugitivos, diaspóricos, móviles

  • To break
    To allow
    To feel electrified
    To breathe
    To not know
    To future
    To root
    To change
    To enter subterranean places that feel like home

    Worlding incantations
    writing with knots
    I conjure
    the crossroads
    oracles
    of migrant, fugitive, diasporic,
    mobile pasts

    To allow
    To break
    To root
    To change

    Worlding incantations
    writing with knots
    We conjure
    the crossroads
    oracles
    of migrant, fugitive, diasporic,
    mobile pasts

  • Quebrar
    permitir
    sentir-se eletrificado
    respirar
    não saber
    futuro
    raiz
    mudar
    para entrar em lugares subterrâneos que se sintam como um lar

    Mundeando encantamentos
    escrevendo com nós
    eu conjuro
    A encruzilhada
    oráculos
    de passados migrantes, fugitivos, diaspóricos e móveis

    Permitir
    quebrar
    raiz
    mudar

    Mundeando encantamentos
    escrevendo com nós
    nós invocamos
    A encruzilhada
    oráculos
    de passados migrantes, fugitivos, diaspóricos e móveis

11. SIRINUS

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti - voice, effects; Frank Rosaly - drums, percussion, krar, synthesizers, electronics; Guilherme Granado - synth bass, electronics; Mikel Patrick Avery – percussion; Fredy Velásquez- harmonica, Awa vocalizations, chacapa, percussion

  • Los instrumentos fueron llevados a los Sirinus
    a una cascada o manantial
    tarde en la noche
    y fueron hechas las ofrendas

    Se afirma que
    estos seres peligrosos y misteriosos
    son la fuente de todo sonido

    La práctica nocturna
    de la usurpación del poder del Sirinu
    tiene el objetivo de lograr que
    los instrumentos suenen
    exquisitamente bellos

    Temas comunes incluyen:

    Seducción
    La habilidad de encantar con su música

    Conocimiento
    La fuente de toda inspiración

    Peligro
    La habilidad de causar enfermedad, muerte o locura
    al menos que el acercamiento con el Sirinu sea con el adecuado cuidado,
    respeto, valor y fortaleza

    Intercambio contrato
    La adquisición de los poderes Sirinus es contractual
    Requiere de una cierta forma de ofrecimiento
    De sacrificio o intercambio

    Poderes demoníacos
    La asociación con Diablos, oscuridad, noche y la tierra interna
    El mundo natural, paisaje
    La asociación con lugares naturales en lugar del mundo humano

    Sentido alterado
    Encuentros con Sirinus, especialmente la adquisición de nuevas melodías
    con frecuencia implica que el oyente ingrese en un sueño
    O en un estado de estar dormido
    O de estar intoxicado

  • The instruments were carried to the Sirinus
    to a waterfall or spring
    late at night
    and the offerings were made

    It is claimed that
    these dangerous and mysterious beings
    are the source of all sound

    The night practice
    of the Sirinu's usurpation of power
    has the objective of achieving
    that the instruments can sound
    exquisitely beautiful

    Common themes include:

    Seduction
    The ability to enchant with its music

    Knowledge
    The source of all inspiration

    Danger
    The ability to cause disease, death, or insanity
    Unless the approach with the Sirinus is with the proper care,
    respect, courage and strength

    Exchange contract
    The acquisition of the power of the Sirinus is contractual
    It requires a certain form of offering
    Of sacrifice or exchange

    Demonic powers
    Association with Devils, darkness, night and the inner earth
    the natural world, landscape
    Association with natural places rather than the human world

    Altered senses
    Encounters with Sirinus, especially the acquisition of new melodies
    often involves the listener entering a dream
    Or in a state of being asleep
    Or of being intoxicated

  • Os instrumentos foram levados para o Sirinus
    para uma cachoeira ou nascente
    tarde da noite
    e as ofertas foram feitas

    É afirmado que
    esses seres perigosos e misteriosos
    eles são a fonte de todo som

    A prática noturna
    da usurpação do poder do Sirinu
    tem o objetivo de alcançar
    que os instrumentos soem
    primorosamente belos

    Os temas comuns incluem:

    Sedução
    A capacidade de encantar com sua música

    Conhecimento
    A fonte de toda inspiração

    Perigo
    A capacidade de causar doença, morte ou loucura
    a menos que a abordagem com o Sirinus seja com o cuidado adequado,
    respeito, coragem e fortaleça

    Troca ou contrato
    A aquisição do poder dos Sirinus é contratual
    Requer uma certa forma de oferta
    De sacrifício ou troca

    Poderes demoníacos
    Associação com demônios, escuridão, noite e terra interior
    O mundo natural, paisagem
    A associação com lugares naturais em vez do mundo humano

    Sentidos alterados
    Encontros com Sirinus, principalmente a aquisição de novas melodias
    com frequência envolve que o ouvinte entre em um estado de sonho
    Ou em um estado de estar dormido
    Ou de estar embriagado

Liner Notes by Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly

We have been entangled with the multiform languages of our ancestors for as long as we can remember, consciously and unconsciously. We have both been touched by a fascination of sound and the act of listening to our surroundings, community and fabric of our realities, weaving deep sorrow, celebration, trance, grief and resistance in song… and in us. 

“Being born and raised in the very outspoken territories of Bolivia and Brazil, I was in constant confrontation of these languages. I remember endless family gatherings, sharing time together making music. In Bolivia, we often shared nostalgic songs that touched the lives of my dad  – howling, banging on his guitar – mom and extended family. In Brazil as well: my grandfather Pedro Ferragutti, a fanfare composer and saxophonist, would sit us down and have us listen to numerous dance and song forms. I recall the tornado of emotions listening to this music, which were like letters from the souls of my lineage from both the Bolivian and Brazilian diasporas. Through those songs, they were teaching me who they were, and who we were. That’s how I fell deeply in love with protest, Latin, Andean, and Brazilian music, and more generally, the sounds of the Southern hemisphere. Coming from deeply rooted musical families in both lands, listening and singing together to Violeta Parra, Victor Jara, Chico Buarque, Gal Costa, Inti Illimani and others was, in many ways, my education. It would define my life path of choosing to pursue art for a living. I didn’t quite grasp the impact of these spacious and timeless listening moments I shared with my family until much later.”  - Ibelisse

“Being a first generation Puerto Rican-American, my parents tried their best to integrate me while also attempting to keep me in touch with our roots. I had a kind of secondary contact with this ancestral language, but was finding my ancestry in the magical surroundings of the desert through my imagination. I saw a rare Tito Puente performance in Arizona when I was very young. That moment was thunder, heating my chest and limbs. I knew that this storm passing through my small body was absolutely the feeling, the opening and the sound. I wanted to pursue music for the rest of my life. The sheer power of that moment became the red thread, propelling me through my practice of listening, playing percussion and composing. I have started connecting the dots on how my alignment with jazz and improvised music – particularly during my 15 years performing in Chicago – has been an extremely important bridge throughout the years to a broader view in relation to my roots. Growing up in Arizona, discouraged to learn Spanish or identify as Puerto Rican, kept me at a distance from those territories. Yet my own ‘discovery’ of bomba, plena, jibaro into son, salsa, music of Yoruba and other Afro-Cubano lineages, and since 2008, pre-colonial Indigenous Taino studies, has precipitated in teaching me the silent songs of those who have inhabited these ancestral territories.” - Frank

We are both now based in Amsterdam. It’s a place that has embraced our experimental practices in music, performance and a diversity of projects. We also fell in love with each other here on September 18th 2014, during a concert Frank was playing at the renowned Jazz venue, Bimhuis. We interpret the oracular spark of this magnanimous love as an act of surrender and total belief. Frank was living in Chicago at the time, and Ibelisse was already based in Amsterdam - and yet there was no way around it, we delved into the storm of migrating continents to sing life together. The love spark between us multiplied our already deep amour for the music that exists in the fabric of our Latin roots.

We are aligned by what we’ve studied within the art practices of jazz, rock, punk, performance art, theater and dance, and share a hunger to relate our own artistic practices and study of our ancestries to the Western styles and ideals that surround us. This calibration made our collaboration both natural and magnetic. 

We then began traveling together to our root territories. In addition to spending countless nights singing and sharing with our families, we noticed other songs – the songs of the land itself. While sitting between the intertwined roots of the Figueira Gigante tree in Ilha Grande, we became acquainted with jungle birds like gavião-carcarás, sanhaços, socós, atobás, tesourão, joão-de-barros, tangará and the beija-flor. While walking for days between cachoeiras and small canyons in Chapada Diamantina we met the birds of this cosmic landscape such as gravatinha, rabo-mole-da-serra, tangará-príncipe and aracuã-de-barriga-branca.

Throughout astonishing pitch-black nights we heard the concerts of the miniature frog Coquí singing together with the most mesmerizing and enchanting insect cacophony and choir of escarabajos, mantis y gorgojos in Playa la Selva, Puerto Rico. We spent long sunny afternoons in Ibelisse's grandparents' gardens and met local birds el picaflor, el hornero, el halcón in Cochabamba, Bolivia. We danced in Puerto Rico among winding vines in El Yunque, listening to the rain fall on the countless leaves and surfaces whose music created a perfect trance.

This record is a document we made as a love letter to our ancestors, both from the past, present and future, while recognizing through ritual and ceremony the inherent colonial presence. Mestizx is a common title used in the territories of the diasporas we belong to, to differentiate people that are from a mixed race descent. It is used in a slightly different way in every place, but generally highlights a separation of lineages from which we descend. This divisive worldview has paved a paradoxical state of being for us regarding what songs we are allowed to associate with.

“I adore, admire and celebrate Andean music, but am ever aware that it is tricky business to try to participate in ritual, music and dance amongst the communities of that territory, despite being born in Bolivia. I am mestiza, so no matter how much love I have for the cosmological, ecological and mind-blowing practices, the nature of the other (colonial) half of my lineage carries separation.”  - Ibelisse 

“To natives of Puerto Rico, I will always be experienced as an outsider, so making the attempt for an intimately shared experience from my Puerto Rican heritage will always be one stemming from some degree of alienation. But as a mestizo, it doesn’t hinder me from reaching towards the deep roots I feel within, so I choose to liberate the music within.” - Frank

We felt a shared kinship and grief in this estrangement, worthy of addressing. We experience our ancestral homes as intrinsically distant, and share an urgency to connect deeper with our ancestral lineage. Through our talks, travels and this shared longing, both a nostalgia and a healing process were ignited within us. This commenced a deep journey to grasp the historical reasons on why these separations are so loud. This process continues to be a painful one, so we began to absorb practices, readings and a multiplicity of teachings to align in love and listening to our histories. While knowing we are opening a past, present and future can of worms - we became aware this was an indispensable step to be made.

Corrupted histories, written by the same hands that created the separation in the first place, became our focus. We ventured into painful cracks. We spent time with historians, activists and healers who write from a place of resistance and stand in the dangerous trenches of truth. We armored up to listen within our own mestizx bodies, hearing what these cracks had to tell us. We listened… and listened. What we heard is this: for the last 500 years, most of the voices of our ancestors, their belief systems, cosmologies, ecologies, resources, territories and bodies have been made invisible. Silenced. Forcibly migrated & enslaved. Oppressed. Erased. Built over. Destroyed.

However, our ancestors are still whispering through those alleged erasures. There is an echo no one will ever be able to silence, a thread to grasp. That helped us realize that it is not us that don’t belong, rather, it’s the vast colonial project of multifaceted oppression that has made us believe such a lie. We were not imagining the alienation that was being imposed upon us based on the attempted uprootedness which we felt. So we sang, we played and above all we created silence to listen to those humming voices that are giving us the permission to sing and play, speculating upon sonic imaginaries and entering trance-like states in order to harvest what they tell us.

We are un-weaving conditionings, disassembling and reweaving the artifacts that remain into the songs that are now manifested in this record. We recognize that these are more than songs to us, they are threads that echo timelines that have been made nearly invisible. We know that there is resonance in the darkness of those cracks. There is resistance. There is Love. There are still innumerable unfolded crevices and fissures filled with untold stories. We also learned that we don’t have to dig up all of the past, we simply have to make ourselves available to our ancestors so that they can sing through us. 

We would like to acknowledge the mountains, the jungles, the plants, the animals and the people that have guided us to practice courage while listening, may they be amongst the living or in the almas realm: Cordillera de los Andes, the Amazon, Pajchiri, Lago Corani, El Yunque, The Mogollon Rim, Balneario Seven Seas, Ilha Grande, Chapada Diamantina, the Atlantic and Caribbean Sea and all ecosystems that inhabit these territories. We acknowledge sound practitioners Violeta Parra, Tito Puente, Victor Jara, Billy Higgins, Canario, Kantus de Charazani, the Afro-Bolivian community, Andean Ayllus, Elvira Espejo, the Taíno Indigenous community, Phujllay from Tarabuco, the Sirinus. We acknowledge the writers, activists, historians, theorists, ethnomusicologists and healers Guaman Poma Ayala, Arnaud Gérard, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Bayo Akomolafe, Qhana Wara and Yawar Mallku. 

We would like to pay our gratitude and utmost admiration to International Anthem Recording Company, Scottie McNiece, Dave Vettraino, David Allen, Alejandro Ayala for the gift of making this document. Thank you to our community of friends, family, contemporaries and music makers for supporting us, believing in us and giving us your sonic, imagery and pluri-formal gifts:Chris Doyle, Ben LaMar Gay, Rob Frye,  Mikel Patrick Avery, Bill MacKay, Daniel Villarreal, Avreeayl Ra, Guilherme Granado, Fredy Velásquez, Viktor Le Givens. 

Grandparents, Ancestors, this music is for you. We love you.