Earth Based Music

Long before there were stages, microphones and concert halls, people sang. By the fire, under the stars, by the river. They sang to give thanks, to heal, to call and to remember. The songs did not come from the head, but from the earth itself – from the wind in the trees, the rushing of the water, the breath of the plants.

These songs live on to this day. And new ones keep coming into being.

Here I share songs from nature-connected traditions of various peoples. Chants passed on by the fire over generations, from mouth to mouth, from heart to heart. Songs that thank the earth, the water, the ancestors and the great mystery that permeates everything. They are medicine made of sound. They open spaces, cleanse, protect and connect.

And I also share songs of my own. Some show themselves outside in nature, on a forest path or by a mountain stream. But many come in the middle of quite ordinary everyday life: while washing up, in the car, on the way to the building site, while brushing my teeth. Suddenly a melody is there, as if it had long been waiting to be heard. I didn't invent these songs, rather found them. For the earth doesn't only sing in the forest. It sings wherever we listen.

When I first encountered these chants, it was as if something in me answered that had always been there. An ancient remembering. Since then they have accompanied me on my path, in the silence, in the circle and in everyday life.

I sing the traditional songs with great respect and in gratitude to the peoples and people who have preserved them and passed them on. I don't see myself as their owner, but as someone who may carry them for a while – just as the river carries the water that comes from the mountains. And I give my own songs back into the same river.

Perhaps you don't understand the words. That isn't necessary either. These songs speak a language that reaches deeper than any word. Just let them flow through you. Close your eyes. Breathe. And feel how the earth beneath you sings along.