Album Notes

Ritual was recorded live during a completely improvisatory session on September 10, 2004 at Kaliandra sound temple in the state of Goias, the high savannah region at the center of Brazil. The recording was made in an incredible meditation space (pictured on CD cover) with cathedral-like acoustics. Because of the natural amplification, it was made using only two microphones and no added effects. This was meant to capture the spontaneous and sacred nature of the music, which combines elements of mantra with Brazilian chants of Amazonian and African origin. The instruments are nearly all handmade and include the Iranian santur (a kind of hammer dulcimer), Indian tamboura, violin, guitar, hectara (a one-stringed instrument from India), ceramic drums (pote de barro, made locally in Goias) and a variety of other Brazilian and African percussion.

This work is a collaborative effort involving several elements. Kaliandra, (www.kaliandra.cn.to) a project founded in 1993 by Brazilian musicians Sol and Sampatti, restored the abandoned temple, and is devoted to creating transcendent sound through ongoing live performances. The weekly meditative sessions draw visitors and musicians from all over the world and use handmade instruments from both local and international artisans. Juliana Birnbaum, an anthropologist and singer from San Francisco, California, was introduced to Kaliandra through Argentine percussionist Ivan Padilla, and performed there over several months in 2004. Because her anthropological work in Brazil aims to back the Ashaninka tribe in their struggle to preserve their ancestral lands in the Amazon, she decided to make the album a benefit for this effort. She founded Voices in Solidarity to create a structure for artists with a similar vision to support grassroots community organizing for social and environmental justice.