BYRON METCALF with STEVE ROACH The Shaman's Heart 1 CD Digipack 2005

The Shaman's Heart 1

CD Digipack

1. Preparation Pulse (8:02)
2. Threshold of Intention (8:53)
3. Decision Point (7:58)
4. The Call for Total Surrender (20:09)
5. Raven Medicine (10:19)
6. Wisdom Work (11:51)
7. Unfolding Clarity (5:51)

Although Byron has been working on The Shaman’s Heart for almost two years, in a very real sense this project represents his entire life’s journey and overriding quest: to develop the ability to live in the world and remain heart-centered — to stay connected to one’s compassionate core — no matter what the circumstances may be. Along with his music, Byron has chosen the shamanic path, “the path with heart” as don Juan referred to it, as a primary method to accomplish this most challenging and rewarding goal.

The Shaman’s Heart is a powerful and unique rhythmic and soundworlds trance experience based on the traditional structures of shamanic drumming. The entire journey is built using a collection of buffalo drums, frame drums and rattles, presented as a continuous unfolding rhythmic state starting with lone peyote rattles and eventually evolving into a mandala-like polyrhythmic ecstacy. Fellow traveller, friend and collaborator Steve Roach is also on-board, providing a shapeshifting undercurrent of essential soundworlds and didgeridoo provided to create a balanced sense of support for the intrepid inner traveler. Adding to the experience is the sense that it’s all occurring in a grounded, ceremonial space through the use of sounds from the natural world. This is unlike any of the solo projects or collaborations from Byron and Steve. A perfect example of the notion that “the music is the medicine.”

Review by Frank MacEowen, author and shamanic guide:
“In The Shaman’s Heart , virtuoso percussionist Byron Metcalf takes us on a potent journey into the archetypal depths of shamanic awakening. Blending poly-rhythmic percussion and the hot spark of shaman’s rattles with rainsticks, didgeridoos, the sound of wind, the grokking of ravens, and supported by the sonic wizardry of Steve Roach, The Shaman’s Heart will carry the listener into that place of ancestral memory where the Ancient Ones beckon us to remember the crackling fires, deep forests, and ceremonial caverns where the shaman’s heart was originally born. Whatever our cultural or ancestral background we all have ancestors who were shamans and shamanic practitioners. In The Shaman’s Heart we are reminded of this powerful spirit in each of us; a spirit that is needed on the planet, now more than ever.”

Byron Metcalf – Buffalo drums, bear & peyote rattles, udu & clay pot, frame drums, hybrid toms, various shamanic percussion (seed pods, beads, shells, pottery & stone), spirit winds, hoasca sounds

Steve Roach – Analog and digital soundworlds, didgeridoo, ocarinas, additional shamanic percussion on track 5