Customer Reviews

Woven Songs of the Amazon: Healing Icaros of the Shipibo Shamans

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3 star:		(1)
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It was really difficult to make a decision about this music CD because Amazon's own free samples are way too short to get a clear glimpse from them. Still I decided to give it a go since I've always enjoyed real Native American music and even more when it's free of synthesizers.

Ok so, why the title of this review?, this covers way more than Healing Icaros. Among the 25 tracks you can find sounds of the jungle, everyday songs, community songs, even a lovely track featuring kids laughing and singing (Track 11, Children of the River).

This then, is more than mere shaman songs, it is a testimony to an endangered culture, and the preservation value alone has justified the purchase. We as a society (white/western culture) are aggressively taking away the living space of these peoples who rely on millennial oral traditions to transmit their culture to new generations, and they too (the new generations) are being destroyed by the penetration of our culture.

The back cover claims:
"the proceeds from this album go directly to the Shipibo singers and their families who participated in this recording"

Whether you believe that or not is up to you, nevertheless I didn't find a reason for this to be on that,
just play it and let it transport you to the jungle...

To a simpler life.
To a more happy life.
To a more sacred life.

...first of all, I've got to say I wanted to like this music more than I did. The intentions of the label seem to be pretty sound, the liner notes encourage you towards an awareness of the significance of the Amazon rainforest. It encourages one to consider your own involvement through purchasing products that are created through exploitation of the Amazon rainforest, for this it must be commended. Thing is, I can't help but feel that anyone who purchases this disc is already going to be aware of the pillaging of our planet, it's preaching to the aware.
The liner notes are quite interesting, pointing out the significance of the songs, or icaros, and their origin. Its fascinating to learn that the icaro is also 'experienced' by the shaman as a visual pattern and these patterns are then woven into cloth.
The music features the extended family of a renowned healer and shaman, Herlinda Augustine. It has an almost melancholy quality about it, distant, though definately calming. I really would like to hear this music within the context of why it was created, that is, on location participating in the ceremony these icaros were created for. This is why, when a recording studio is set up within the village and the songs are recited for the recorder, you can only expect a facsimile of what these songs are about. That is not to say that the singers did not 'mean' what they sung or revere their significance, but I was left feeling disassociated from the content. Sadly, I would probably appreciate them more as a sample within another composition; to be sure though, by a musician who cared about the music he was sampling.
This will undoubtedly appeal to ethnomusicological fans, Ocoraphiles, fans of the human voice, and possibly 'heads' looking for the next trippy shamanic thing maaan!! ( though to be sure they will probably be left scratching their skulls, reaching for another toke - and sell it two years after the fact having sat at the bottom of their collection for that time!!). If you have had the good fortune of meeting these people and sharing their culture, it will be a wonderful aural memoir and possibly inspire you to investigate their culture if you haven't.
Cheers - Perry

To be up-front, i know not only the producers of this CD, but also the shamans in the village that have recorded these icaros. So, in that sense, this is a biased review. With that said, for me, these icaros are the real deal. You won't find these icaros to be "easy listening" or necessarily "pretty" at first listen. Yet, after you encounter them a few times (especially in a ceremonial context), they will find a place in your heart. These Shipibo people will use icaros to heal or transform circumstances in virtually any situation. For them, sound is an elemental way to alter the very fabric of the universe. This CD can be a doorway into that world for the uninitiated.

On top of all that, when you buy a copy, part of the proceeds of the sale go directly to benefit these Shipibo people. Having been to their home myself, i know that every little bit helps them to keep these traditions intact and flourishing.

This is one of my favorite cd's of sacred Yage songs...
The Shipibo have a hauntingly beautiful style of ayahuasca songs. These songs can have the power to purify the environment in which they are played, as well as assist in healing/cleansing the body, mind and spirit of the listener. May your life be infused with the Magic of the Amazon!

I have not heard this CD in its entirety--merely have listened to the samples. But they were more than enough to persuade me to go ahead and buy the CD. Admittedly I am strongly biased toward the indigenous cultures of the Amazon basin because I have had some of the most wonderful experiences of my life in amazonian indigenous communities in Ecuador and Peru. The songs on this CD of Shipibo singers remind me of a CD I have of songs of the Secoya people who live in northern Ecuador and also in Peru. The melodic structure and pacing of the songs are very similar. These are clearly traditional songs that have been passed down generation to generation, so that we can safely assume that listening to them we are hearing something very close to what ancestors of these singers were singing centuries ago at least in terms of melodic conventions if not lyrics. But above all these songs are hauntingly beautiful. Listen to the samples and you will agree.

The icaros on this disc, if that's what in fact they are, are being sung for the purpose of recording. They were not recorded in ceremony. There is no leaf-bundle rattling. The background noise (of which there is little) is of children playing or sounds of common daily activities. Very disappointed.