Ancients call was a direct and absolute reaction to the many earth ceremonies I took part in while filming the series Beyond Survival. Ayahuasca, San Pedro, seed ceremony, ceremony of the ancients, water, tobacco, earth, air ceremonies in Peru, initiation ceremonies with the Incan high priests and on it goes for ten months of these intense, emotional and spiritual endeavours. Some fell a bit lame, which I would attribute more to me and my state than to the ceremony itself. However, some were beyond profound and changed my life and most definitely my connection to the earth. Many of them, such as the trance dance in the Kalahari desert with the San Bushmen we specifically about connecting to the ancients. The ancestors. This wasn’t to just say hi, these were efforts to gain wisdom and to learn how to survive whatever might be coming.
My spiritual seeking has never stopped and I still find myself involved in ceremonies that repeatedly are about connecting to those who came before us. Sometimes directly within our blood lines and sometimes any soul that has come before and gone onto that greater understanding….whatever that may be.
These ancients are there, always, watching and waiting and available to us to communicate with. To learn from. To seek out for wisdom. They know where we are going because we are already there. There is no time in their existence as there is no time in ours. We are not linear.
I did, as I always seem to do, want to finish off lyrically in a positive place. In a place with hope. “But the earth can heal and so can I”.
There is huge credit to both Bryan Potvin and Ian Auger for their attention to detail in the music of this piece. The initial idea came when I was humming a melody I had heard in Africa. It sounded to me something very akin to what Peter Gabriel might write and it got me going on a refrain; “ Ancients Call, call me home….follow where I go”. I was singing this over and over to the recording of some of the chanting I had filmed in Africa, to Bryan and that got him going on some song structure. He brought in the heavy guitar and he and Ian started to really let loose in the studio carving and crafting the heavy feel. The reprise at the end was Bryan’s idea but it still felt a bit soft so when getting to the final over dubs and mixing with Mike Clink I implored him to make the “hits” of the guitar and drums as heavy as possible. I was remembering something I liked by the artist IMX. Bryan and Ian played around with the voice of Kelly Adams who was, for all intent and purposes the voice of Mother Earth in this whole creation. The visuals to this whole piece are intense and like my other work can be seen in the video I play on big screens behind me in concert and of course on RU-vid.
I absolutely love that this whole musical extravaganza, as bombastic and big as it is, is, to me, reminiscent of every prog rock band I have ever loved; Rush, Yes, King Crimson, Tool, Pink Floyd and of course Peter Gabriel.
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21 мар 2024
