Roberto A. Mendoza L. (Panóptica) was born and raised in Tijuana, México, has been one of the main figures in the Mexican electronic and world fusion music since the late 80's by forming Mexico's benchmark bands like Artefakto, the critically acclaimed Panóptica and Nortec Collective.
In 1989 Roberto released his first band album “Synthesis”, which dives in to progressive electronic pop and new wave, well received by critics and media in México.

By 1991, Artefakto’s second album evolves into a more aggressive sound or post-Industrial style as a result “Des-construccion” released in 1993, strong lyrics with a social-political commitment by Mendoza found a kindred spirit in Sascha Konietzko of German band KMFDM who produced tracks of that album and features vocals with Mendoza on the single “La Diferencia”. Legendary Chicago industrial Wax Trax label offered Mendoza’s band a contract, however the disc was not released until one year later under the label Zoth Ommog (Germany) Sub/Mission (Italy) and Opcion Sonica (México), as well as the third album “Tierra Electrica” in 1994 and the fourth “Interruptor” in 1997, with great reception in South America, Europe and México.

By 1998, Mendoza produced and composed a track without a band, experimenting with different styles like Dub, Techno, Breaks, Glitch and minimal always with a Mexican vibe, but it was until the year 2000 when he started his solo career as Panóptica signing a deal with UK label Certificate 18 (Domino Records) releasing a string of albums and singles while touring Europe. In 2002 he performed for the legendary John Peel in London’s BBC, been the only Mexican musician with a Peel Session, he also recorded The Tijuana Session’s Vol. 1 and Vol. 3 which got nominated for 2 Latin Grammy’s and various independent awards. Meanwhile a new side project was born under the moniker R. Mendoza, in which he takes a more personal and experimental approach for making music, “Canciones de La Presita” (2006, Imeca Records) and “Si me duermo… choco (2009, Static Discos).

With a non stop agenda of performances around the world it was until late 2007 early 2008 that Mendoza finally focused on composing and producing a new Panóptica record for which he recruited a new live band who became now The Panóptica Orchestra in which he began experimenting in the fusion of different Mexican and global styles of ethnic music, also starting a new art audiovisual project with Mexican video director Gerardo Audiffred. The Panóptica Orchestra Album was named one of the best records in 2010 by Rolling Stone Magazine and nominated for Independent Record of the year and best video clip by Indie-O Music Awards 2010. For the first time Panóptica music, crosses over to the main stream public, with his videos on the top of the Charts on MTV Latin America. Also for the first time, Mendoza works as an album producer for a band who fuses Mexican, gypsy, Balkan, Arabic and electronic music under the name Internacional Sonora Balkanera, which will make their debut on Glastonbury Festival 2011. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.