Words about the album by Lukáš Bulko
These compositions were created between spring 2019 and spring 2021 and are the result of concentrated and focused work significantly morphed and boosted by the corona pandemic.
The intention of the album Ceremony is to facilitate a transformative experience. It is inspired by indigenous shamanic ceremonies performed during sacred plants healing sessions I experienced myself. (I was also strongly influenced by tribal worldview through documentaries such as “Spirit of Jaguar” by Slovak filmmaker Pavol Barabas or “Aluna” by the BBC. The inspiration is also drawn from the utopian book “Chronicles from the Future” by Paul Amadeus Dienach, which describes the monumental spiritually and materially advanced global society of the 40th century. It is precisely the rituals and ceremonies in the book that play a crucial role in the self-awareness and self-development of the people of the future and the development of global consciousness.
My desire for these compositions is to honestly guide the listener through the healing ceremony – a process that can help to connect us with our deep emotions and true selves and thus somehow try to help the strange and wounded world we live in.
Tribal sounds are for me the most important and intimate sound artifact of the whole album. Ceremonial sounds recorded by Richard Grossman were the first and basic building blocks of all first 6 compositions, I gradually and literally built the whole compositions around them. Some have morphed considerably in the process. Later, violin improvised contributions by Ján Kružliak brought significant enrichment and heart to this work. Putting these various substances together was an act of ceremony itself.
Crafting compositions like this was an act of self-therapy, but also an act of resistance. Next, I would like to explain why.
I suffer from the political, systemic, relational, human rights and environmental hypocrisy of this world. I feel that civilization is in a deep crisis. All that chaos and helplessness is mirroring itself in ordinary life in very personal, relational and intimate levels and that is sometimes too much for my sanity and strength. I would like to be able to face challenges of life realistically, to accept mistakes, not to force the negative things out. I needed a safe space to maintain my health and I found this space in the vision of humanity in the book I mentioned before and in the wisdom of some tribal animistic cultures.
People nowadays use words such as “humanism”, “sustainability” and “biodiversity” a lot. The meaning of these words has gained almost a sense of sacredness these days. People risk their lives for whales or go into an uneven battle with the powerful companies for the trees if they accidentally see them destroyed anywhere on Earth. Today, these words can be heard from the mouths of completely ordinary people. And the reason we say them is that what we currently experience is the exact opposite. Indigenous people are not very familiar with these terms, they don’t need them, and yet (some of them) have managed to exist without abusing their surroundings for 10,000s of years. For me, the most fascinating moment of insight was, when I realized that they actually hold the most competent sustainability expertise available to humanity as a whole. If we want to build a sustainable and wise civilization, if we want to reach a form of consciousness that is in a state of wisdom and in balance with nature and beings around us, they are here to teach us what it really means. And we need to listen to them. Not because we should go back to the tribal state of civilization, but to get a chance to connect ourselves with living life again and move evolutionarily and culturally forward.
This album tries to be an intimate act of connecting the culture of Global North (modern and exact) with the Global South (tribal and spiritual), at the same time it is an act of connecting the present with the past (every one of us had ancestors, who once lived tribally and sustainably) and the future (our time will be seen as Middle Ages from the perspective of the future generations). With this album, I want to invite us to cross the time barrier and connect to what we need to become.
Tracklist & arts by Silvia Bobeková
01 TRANSMISSION
02 NEW WORLD HEALING CENTRE
03 IN THE SERVICE OF LIFE
04 MASS TO FREE US
05 FROM UNTOLD PAINS
06 RELEASENESS
07 FLIGHT OVER UTOPIA
08 GOOD NIGHT VALLEY OF THE ROSES
Total run time: 74 minutes
All songs written and produced by Lukáš Bulko between 2019 – 2021.
Various ceremonial recordings: shakers, flutes, gongs, didgeridoo, jaw harp, Icaro singing in songs 1-6 performed and recorded by Richard Grossman Phd and Serena Gabriel.
Violin and box cello in songs 1-6 by Ján Kruzliak Jr
Modular electronics in songs 1-5 and 7 by Adam Dekan
Piano in song 7 and 8 by Michal Veselský
Vocals in song 6 by Marián Hrdina
Mixed by Adam Dekan
Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Paintings in CD book and cover art by Silvia Bobeková Art
Layout and design of CD book by R. Keane
Creation of this album was supported by Slovak Arts Council and SOZA
© Lukáš Bulko | Lost Tribe Sound LLC
℗ Settled Scores LLC (ASCAP)
ALAPASTEL 