Ancestros was composed by Ricardo Dal Farra (electroacoustic processors), working in collaboration with Jorge Cumbo (aerophones), in 1986.

A traditional language together with a present one, early instruments interacting with others born months ago from a very complex technology, folklore in fusion with a new perspective. These are some ideas that gave origin to Ancestros. The traditional instruments played in the piece are: quena (notched end-blown flute from the Andes), quenacho (a very low register quena), and antara (panpipe from the Andes; a set of graduated flutes that are joined together in a raft shape). The sounds coming from this early aerophones are processed through digital units to obtain delayed, transposed and reverberated versions of the crude material.

All sounds heard on this tape were played and processed live during recording. Ancestros was premiered live in Argentina in 1986. As a tape piece it has been played at the III Encuentro Internacional de Música Electroacústica (Cuba), the Structure and Perception of Electroacoustic Sound and Music symposium (Sweden) and at the III World Music Days 1988 (Hong-Kong), among other concert series and symposiums.

Source: CEC / Concordia Archival Project (CAP), 2008