| The haunting, plaintive music of Peruvian shamans was | | | | of ceremonial chants and Ayahuasca icaros on CD. |
| recorded by the Eagle's Wing Centre for | | | | Tracks 1-3 San Pedro ceremony held in Puruchucu, at |
| Contemporary Shamanism at ceremonies in the | | | | the head of the Rimac valley. The ruins of this sacred |
| Peruvian Andes and the Amazon rainforest. | | | | site or huaca date back to pre-Inca times and have |
| Although the chants and icaros have an organic | | | | been accurately reconstructed. Setting the scene for |
| relationship to the medicine plants and shamanic | | | | the ceremony, three musicians play replicas of |
| journeying of each particular ritual, and are primarily | | | | pre-Hispanic instruments. Alonso del Rio says: |
| intended as devotional music for inner-journeying. It is | | | | âwhile keeping to their original tuning, we have |
| equally possible to listen to the hypnotically beautiful | | | | explored the instruments musical possibilities to give an |
| sounds in their own right and simply enjoy them for | | | | idea of what the music could have been like in |
| their otherworldly loveliness. | | | | pre-Colombian times. The melodies came to us |
| The Shamans of Peru - Ceremonial Chants, Icaros, | | | | through the ancestral memory evoked through |
| and Music | | | | medicinal plants like San Pedro and |
| This unique set of recordings documents a collection | | | | Ayahuascaâ. |