Crossroads
Crossroadsis a meeting across the southern border with Robert Tree Cody, a Native flute player of the Dakota and Maricopa tribes, and Xavier Quijas Yxayotl, born in Guadalajara and reputedly of the Huichol tribe of Mexico's indigenous people. He specializes in pre-Colombian instruments, including Aztec and Mayan flutes. Their cultures and instruments are close relatives and the two find a common ground in slow and midtempo acoustic trance grooves ornamented by an array of little percussion instruments, including rattles, rainsticks, rasps, and drums. These form the atmospheres for their simple flute melodies and chants. Extreme stereo panning amplifies rhythmic counterpoints over the native "one beat," especially in the cross rhythms of "Procession of the Jaguar King."--John Diliberto