Shaman Music 1 First Voyage The music in this CD was created with the intention of working as an active element in the service of a group shamanic experience. Our intention was to take a small group from the "normal" human dimension into a more subtle space and state, and then get them back safe and sound. This is the first in a series of group shamanic experiments. The music was designed to accomplish that process. It changes speed, texture and tone according to the stages of the voyage. The original process lasted around 2 hours and a half. The music here has been compressed into a little more than one hour. Feel free to use it for your own shamanic experiments and voyages. And when you hear a familiar tune, do sing along! The lyrics may have a whole new meaning... JC Mendizabal aka Kyron I come from a country with a long tradition of human warmth and a painful and bloody history: El Salvador. I came to the United States in the early '80s, at the start of the civil war there, and I have lived here in San Francisco since then. I have travelled back to El Salvador many times, so I consider myself a kind of synthesis of both cultures. Much like the music that I create my mind is equal parts magic and science, logic and madness! I studied creative writing in college and wrote many short stories. I slowly became dissatisfied with the way that creative writing was taught in college and I changed my major to music, which I studied in SFSU. I graduated in 1993 with a specialty in Music Composition and Electronic Music. The main skill I feel that I learned in school was the careful application of attention to each and every detail of a musical composition. I learned that this attention could be applied to any style of music. Several of my pieces in a "classical" style were performed by the Symphonic Orchestra of El Salvador and by other smaller chamber groups. In 1994, the University of Santa Clara gave me a comission to create the music for a Multimedia Piece (involving dance and theatre) based on the massacre of El Mozote. This piece was finally performed in 1996. But even before then, around 1992, I started to realize that something was missing from my musical work. I started to experiment with various shamanic and magical traditions, slowly finding my way through this mine field to arrive at the start of what is known as the Path. I began to realize that music could be used as a practical method of travelling to other dimensions or planes, to gently (and sometimes not so gently) push the human machine into awakening and to create spaces of invocation. As I explored more deeply in these regions, I became involved with other people that were also interested in these ancient questions. During several years I devoted myself almost completely to this work. I participated in and directed many shamanic and musical experiments. Some of these have been recorded and may soon be available. Others were as ephemeral as truly beautiful moments have to be. These days I give all my energies to the project that we now know as "Black Note Music" - through which I hope to truly develop and explore at least some of the infinite panorama of possibilities that I see before me. Together with my current friends, and others that I still haven't met, I hope that we can really find and offer those places where ancient shamanic practices and invocations meet the age of synthesizers and electronica. "I started playing music more than 15 years ago and I really feel that I have barely started to penetrate into the marvelous mystery that is held within those structured vibrations. I have created pop music, classical music, minimalist music, electronic, blues,experimental, jazz, industrial... almost all genres. I don't feel that the particular genre that is used to classify music should have any importance. What truly matters is what kind of vibration is awakened in those that listen. So my most recent work is dedicated to creating music that will affect the listeners in subtle but profound ways. Music operates at a pre-linguistic level. The parts of the brain which listen to notes, to rhythms, are not intrinsically connected or dependant on language. This makes these areas of the brain more innocent, more open to the greatest questions that we can make, they are more ready and willing to embark on journeys with no return. I wish that my music may be the starting point and a faithful companion in such journeys."