Music is Medicine
“Sounds of Ceremony”
A studio-crafted reflection of our medicine space
Every Gaian Rhythm ceremony begins in silence, then opens with the traditional Shipibo icaros that guide the night. Those songs are always sung live in circle and will never be recorded or distributed. They belong to the medicine, not the market.
“Sounds of Ceremony” is everything that comes after.
This album was recorded in-studio as a way for guests to attune to the sonic landscape that follows the icaros in our retreats. It is not a live capture of a ceremony. It is a carefully built sound world meant to support preparation, integration, and remembrance.
You will hear:
Crystal bowls, chimes, rattles, whistles, guitars and layered vocals
Instrumental passages for grounding and re-entry
Subtle jungle ambiance woven throughout the tracks for a sense of place, layered intentionally
Songs and soundscapes arranged in the same arc we use in ceremony: descent, journey, return
No field recordings. No crowd noise. No medicine songs taken out of context. Just the textures that hold the container once the icaros have opened the way.
For first-time guests
Listening before your retreat helps your body and nervous system recognize the environment you will enter. Familiarity reduces resistance.
For past guests
Use this album during journaling, rest, breathwork, meditation, or quiet evenings. Let it reopen the inner pathways without pulling you back into the intensity of the experience.
A note on integrity
We honor the lineage by keeping the icaros live, unrecorded, and relational. This album exists alongside ceremony, not instead of it.
Listen Now
Spotify:
Also available on all major streaming platforms.
Artist name: Gaian Rhythm
The Call (Burned Again Extended Version)
Music video and Single Release
In the summer of 2024, Dale and I wrote “The Call,” the original version of which ended up on our “Sounds of Ceremony” album. The lyrics from that song were written in early 2024 as a reflection of my entire journey with the medicine.
This year we set out to make a music video for The Call. I ended up filming so much footage that the original song was too short. After I sat with it, I realized my journey had changed so much that the song needed to change too. So we created the Burned Again Extended Version to fit the video. We have also released this version as its own single on all streaming platforms if you want to hear it.
Why a “Burned Again” version? Well, 2024 and 2025 have been pretty pivotal years for me. Hard, but deeply expansive and ultimately beautiful. The original song is, at its core, about alchemy. It is about the dark night, about finding oneself, about death and rebirth. I have had a few of those seasons in my life. This past winter, I knew I was going to move through one again. The difference now is that I understand the alchemical process instead of fearing it. The extended version and the video became part of my catharsis and my way of showing the beauty and the transformation that can be found on this path.
The video itself is meant to reflect the last eight years of my life. It is the story of my medicine journey, distilled into imagery, symbolism, and the wild little universe inside my head.
Trying to encapsulate eight years of my life into eight minutes is, as it turns out, wildly difficult. It made sense to me to tell the timeline through the people who came and went in my life. In a way, this video is just as much about the people who crossed my path as it is about me, because whether they were blessings or lessons, they shaped my way forward. Every single one of them contributed to my growth. I also hope the video shows that everyone we meet is a guide in their own way, and that we are all just walking each other home. Honestly, I could have made this video an hour long and cast thirty more characters, but I tried my best to be concise.
Art has been my main creative outlet and integration tool this year, and this project became my full-blown obsession over the summer. To the average viewer, this video will probably look like pure chaos, but every single detail has meaning for me.
Lastly, to everyone who answered my call (pun absolutely intended 😉) and stepped in to play these characters: THANK YOU SO MUCH. I quite literally could not have made this video without you. I am sorry for the mosquito bites and the sub-par craft services 🙃😅, but know that I am forever grateful for each of you.
With Gratitude,
Stormie