Light I/t Attic

Various

Visionaries in Mexico have sought ways to look beyond the stars for millennia. Ancient civilizations like the Maya and Aztecs designed their cities as gigantic star maps, orienting their buildings to mark equinoxes, solstices, and zenith passages. This inquisitive form of meaning-making through art has long been endangered_first by Spanish colonizers; then by the Mexican government's throttling of artistic expression in the late 20th century; and now by the violent anti-Mexican sentiments of the present day propagated by U.S. President Donald Trump. And through it all, the Mexican spirit of astral curiosity has continued to inform the artistic brilliance of sculptors, writers, painters, and especially musicians in Mexico. In the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, artists from around the country were deeply engaged in the project of bringing forgotten Mexican instrumentation into the many worlds of experimental music. As Carlos "Tropicaza" Icaza says in the liner notes of Light in the Attic's A La Altura: Visionary Mexican Music 1977-1999 - Volumes 1 & 2, it was a moment in which musicians were "search[ing] for a Mexican musical root" by integrating ideas from the contemporary worlds of classical minimalism, ambient music, new age, free improv, and electro-acoustic composition with the incorporation of Pre-Colombian instrumentation. These two collections of Mexican experimental music feature 25 visionary artists over two volumes. The intention is twofold and embedded in its title: A La Altura (or To The Height). These artists were actively engaged in a form of consciousness raising, whether by questing for the stars through their music or by elevating the artform itself. Just as boldly, these two volumes make the statement that Mexican artists and composers like Luis Perez, Ana Ruiz, Antonio Zepeda, and Jorge Reyes should be spoken in the same breath as Michael Rother, Terry Riley, Hiroshi Yoshimura, and the many other artists who have been rightly feted for their spirit of experimentation. Compiled and produced by Mexican journalist, musician and DJ Icaza and dublab radio founder and LA Phil Creative Producer Mark "Frosty" McNeill over the span of nearly a decade with the support of all artists represented, A La Altura does exactly that. "We want to raise the profile of these artists to show they're on the same level as those at the vanguard of the most celebrated boundary-pushing movements in global music history but with deep roots in Mexico," McNeill says. While you might hear a few familiar flourishes, what holds these collections together is their difference, the sense that the music they contain is being made by people who aren't ignorant of the world beyond their physical borders, but who are more interested in transcending borders altogether.

Price

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Genre

Jazz

Format

LP · 1 disc

Release

30-10-2026

Label

Light I/t Attic

Item-nr

1324315

EAN

0826853023214

Availability

Exp. 30-10-2026