/Beyond/ – Frecuencias Ancestrales [Eotrax]

Frecuencias Ancestrales is an audiovisual project created by the music producer /Beyond/, founder of the Catalan label Urban Legend, and by Pedro Maia, an artisanal filmmaker who works expressly with analogue systems. In addition, this release features the photographic work of Teresa Espadafor and is published on the Irish label Eotrax.

Frecuencias Ancestrales is a concept album based on the nine regions of the Mitclán, a mythological legend that has its origins in Mexican culture and refers to the underworld, to the path that souls travel after leaving existence in this world. The preparation and recording of this release has involved the artists interacting directly with the indigenous Chichimeca group Jonas to construct a sonic narrative that blends contemporary adaptation with ancient ritual music.

This audiovisual project brings together the ancestral sounds of Mexico and pre-Hispanic culture. The project was shot in this country in analogue format with a Super 8 camera. This medium provides a brightness and sharpness that contrasts sharply with the high resolution offered by new technologies. Pedro Maia usually works with the traditional 8 mm and 16 mm tapes, his usual modus operandi.

The first stop on this journey is Chiconahuapan, a place that was on the banks of a fast-flowing river that they had to cross with a dog. Musically, this track exemplifies the abandonment of the known world to enter a mysterious path, which sonically /Beyond/ represents it with a confusing mix of earthly sounds to which it adds in its intro several tenebrous drones and a somewhat more comforting melody, however, everything changes with the intense rhythm and the shamanic voices. Tepectli Monamictlan is the second level of Mitclán, in this part of the path the dead had to cross two hills that collide with each other and avoid being crushed, so the cut exhibits a forceful and energetic rhythm. Iztepetl is another stage with enormous difficulties for the dead, who had to avoid tearing their corpses with the sharp flints they had to avoid. This third track is interpreted with a mysterious sound environment, to which we must add a locution and a rhythmic structure that emulates the ritual of these tribes. Itzehecayan is another transition in this journey, again conducive to the mutilation of the body and very cold, with an eternal snowstorm, and a strong wind simulated in a transient musical adaptation that again adds a halo of mystery.

Paniecatacoyan is the fifth stop on this journey, a magical moment in which the dead levitate and are propelled at the mercy of the force of the winds. The cut provokes a disturbing serenity, with a gentle rhythm and a multitude of sonic details that generate very diverse sensations. Timiminaloayan continues with another risky passage for the bodies of the dead, because arrows reach them from different places, and to which their sonorous response materialises with an invigorating rhythm and cadences that induce hypnotic effects. Teocoyohuehualoyan is the stop where the jaguars open the chests of the dead to tear out their hearts. This track combines two opposite emotional situations, since on the one hand a synth line, similar to the human timbre, evokes calm and security, until this peace is invaded by war drums, by an overwhelming percussive structure. Izmictlan Apochcalolca is the stop where the body is abandoned and the soul is liberated, a track that transmits insecurity by the density of its textures and by a bewitching rhythm that advances like a firm step. Chicunamictlan is the end of the journey, the last obstacle that the dead must cross to reach complete liberation, the nine waters of Chicunamictlan that the author represents with a kind of sound ritual in which tribal voices and various field recordings intervene.

Release date: February 25th, 2022.