This work is a sonic portrait of Mexico, rooted in the Christian Passion celebration in the town of Ocotepec, Mexico. During the celebration, which spans nearly four square kilometers, three technicians roamed freely with DAT recorders, capturing the ritual’s music, voices, steps, and ambient life without predetermined paths. The resulting recordings reveal a chaotic, immersive soundscape, alive with overlapping layers of tradition, devotion, and communal expression.

Three stereo field recordings were synchronized and mixed with electronic sounds, summing four stereo tracks that were ultimately rendered into a single stage-tape. I used this tape as a temporal guide for writing the score, letting the sonic gestures of the celebration shape the timing, and characterof the instrumental parts.

At the premiere, musicians were on stage while the tape was diffused through speakers behind the audience. The sound enveloped listeners, creating a sense of being lost within the celebration itself. Amid this flux, the voice of the actor portraying Jesus provided the only linear thread—a human anchor threading the listener through the whole mycelial sonic network.

For me, these recordings constitute a sonic homeland: a world of sound that predates explicit melody or composition, shaping memory, and perception. This work precedes and gestures toward “The National Mexican Anthem, as I recall it from my childhood” (2017) exploring the intimate interplay of ritual, culture, and self. Philosophically and artistically, I hope the piece embraces sound as living, connective, and experiential, an environment where memory, tradition, and place grow together like subterranean mycelia—complex, entangled, and alive beneath the surface.