There is perhaps no name so synonymous with Ibiza&rsquo;s music scene and in particular with Balearic Beat as that of the groundbreaking Argentinian DJ Alfredo Fiorito. In the first in a series of cultural essays, Alfredo's son, the DJ, musical anthropologist and founder of The Heritage Project Jaime Fiorito shares a contemporary vision for Balearic style and highlights the significance and fragility of Ibiza&rsquo;s musical heritage.&nbsp;&nbsp;

I&rsquo;ve often been asked about the origins of what we call Balearic Beat and how I see the evolution of music on the island and its influences on the outside world. For this first of a series of anthropological articles I&rsquo;m following in the footsteps of my father, the iconic DJ Alfredo, who arrived on the island in 1976 and whose cultural imprint is still deeply felt on today&rsquo;s electronic club scene. Without Ibiza, there&rsquo;d be no Alfredo, and without Alfredo, Ibiza would sound and feel very different.&nbsp;
Many will know of my father in relation to his many friends and disciples: Danny Rampling, Paul Oakenfold, Sven V&auml;th and pop legends like Adamski and The KLF, who all danced to his soundtrack in the open-air Amnesia nightclub between 1983 and 1989. In those halcyon days, he played seven hours a night, six nights a week &ndash; unheard of in today&rsquo;s scene - before moving on to Pacha, Manumission at Privilege and We Love Sundays at Space. His sets were famously steamy selections that called on all forms of the music he loved: soul, pop, rap, funk, afro and early house imprints from Chicago. Paul&rsquo;s Byrne&rsquo;s Test Pressing <a href="https://www.testpressing.org/mix/352alfredo1984">website</a> carries many of those early mixes.&nbsp;
The rebellious and avant-garde approach of Alfredo planted a seed, setting a cornerstone of what Ibiza was to become. The free spirit of those early years was transplanted to other countries and carried over generations. Many different industries honed their vision with Ibiza beneath the magnifying glass. The beginning of open air afterparties at Space (now H&iuml; Ibiza); the initiation of hotel raves with Ushua&iuml;a and Hard Rock Hotel and the constantly evolving bohemian fashion scene: all embody the escapist sound and inclusive spirit of Ibiza.&nbsp;
Musically this evolution began with vintage classics as the Café del Mar compilations and continues with contemporary labels such as <a href="https://loveinternationalrecordings.bandcamp.com/merch">Love International,</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://emotional-rescue.org/">Emotional Rescue</a> and <a href="https://hellyeahrec.bandcamp.com/">Hell Yeah recordings</a>. Alfredo&rsquo;s Balearic approach has touched the hearts of music lovers all over the world, but this limitless lifestyle has seen peaks and troughs over the years. My father, like other legends and contemporaries such as Jose Padilla and Andrew Weatherall, lived his career with passion and as a life commitment. His ability to adapt to new musical styles over the past 30 years is apparent in the ongoing respect of promoters such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXcPPaN0JXU">Manumission</a>, We Love Sundays and Storytellers, but he never knew the dizzy financial successes of today&rsquo;s superstar DJs. Instead, my father has lived as an artist: crafting, creating, day to day, always with the music in mind. A renegade, a revolutionary and a real-life inspiration for so many.

In the first in an exclusive series of reflections about his years on Ibiza, Alfredo shares the story of his fateful arrival by boat in 1976 and his first impressions of the fabled &lsquo;hippy island&rsquo;.&nbsp;
&lsquo;In the early 70s, the geopolitical situation of Europe was tense. In Spain General Franco was ruling a hard regime and the younger generation were struggling to find jobs, opportunities and creative freedom. For me, half the world away in my hometown of Rosario, Argentina, I too lived beneath a dictatorship. Life was controlled and liberty was a faraway dream. In the mid 1970s, word began to spread among my generation of a hippy island in the Balearics, a Spanish-speaking wonderland where young liberals like myself would be welcomed with open arms. Where freedom was a right, not something you had to die for.&nbsp;
In 1976, I watched in wonder as the old Ciudad de Ibiza docked after sailing all night from Barcelona. The boat had been bringing new goods and new people to the island for many years, and docked in front of what is now the Zoo Bar. At the time, this was the Casino de Ibiza, where a cultural society of educated islanders gathered to play cards, drink wine and chat about their daily life. I gazed down at the dock below as the first travellers disemabarked. They were received with smiles and warm greetings by a ragtag crowd of locals, hippies, taxi drivers and hotel room hawkers. There were dogs and chickens and bags and cars, tears and laughter and shouting in all languages. For many of us, it was our first glimpse of an island that we had only seen in our dreams.
I was immediately struck by the warmth and the beauty, the lights, the colors and unknown scents on the breeze. I had finally arrived at the hippy island, the land of liberty, a taste I had not known before. A liberty that with time, I would have to learn to respect, as it became clear that - among foreigners at least &ndash; Ibiza had no clearly established limits.
The Ibicencos are a noble ancestral race who have their heritage rooted in colonisations, invasions and revolutions. These characteristics made them generous hosts, comfortable in their own liberal way, sympathetic, happy to receive this new wave of young people arriving from all parts of the world, all the while, maintaining that their traditions were respected. They advised us in a simple sentence: &lsquo;live as you please, but respect our island and our people.&rsquo;&nbsp;
We bade our goodbyes to our newfound friends, and in the heat of the day and the warmth of our welcome, our band of travellers began to disperse across the island. As I set out from the port of Ibiza that mystical morning in 1976, I had no inkling that the adventure of my life had begun.&rsquo;
Click <a href="https://www.theheritageprojectibiza.com/">here</a> to find out more about the preservation work of The Heritage Project

The Heritage Project: Jaime Fiorito shines a spotlight on Ibiza’s rich musical history.

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