Ipan In Xiktli Metzli

Luis P|rez was born in Mexico City on July 11, 1951. From 1971 onwards, he dedicated much of his time to the research of pre-Columbian instrumentation. This research allowed him to travel the Mexican territory and study musical traditions of the native peoples of Mexico. He learned directly from the living sources of the music and collected samples of musical instruments and the songs of different native speakers including Maya, Nahuatl, Mazateco, Yoemem, Comcaac, Raramuri, Wixarika, and more. Following a decade playing in Mexico City’s psychedelic rock scene, his early solo work was a mixture of sounds derived from his vast array of pre-Hispanic and ethnographic wind and percussions which he managed to blend with electronic devices including tape delay units, electric guitars, and synthesizers. During this time, he was given the name ‘Ixoneztli’ (or “one who makes music”) by the legendary ‘curandera’ Pachita and her son Enrique, to whom, like Alejandro Jodorowsky before him, Luis served as assistant. In 1981, the Mexican government became very interested in P|rez’s work and sponsored the production of what became the first recording of the fusion of native Mexican instruments with electronics entitled Ipan In Xiktli Metztli, in the Nahuatl language, or En el Ombligo de la Luna in Spanish – In the Navel of the Moon. The impact of this recording and subsequent performances among media, ethnomusicologists, and audiences alike established Luis Perez Ixoneztli as a precursor to a new musical genre followed by a generation of young Mexican musicians.