(photograph by Fernando Campos Maia)

Download the song – click here

30.12.14 – 04.01.15 – The Human Sound Project worked to create this song over a week with a wonderful group of around 30 people, largely from Rio De Janeiro, who gathered at Vale De Luz retreat centre to enjoy New Years together.

The first session we spent together we sat as a group and each person had the opportunity to reflect on the year past and talk about their dreams for the coming year. Many moving stories were told, tears were shed and dreams were expressed. From these stories a set of words were transcribed which were brought together to form a collective poem for the song.

We then had a jam session and many sounds were recorded from this. You will hear “Obrigada”, “Todo indo bem” and others.

The next session was held on the 1st of January, New Years day at 11pm – We gathered around the fire pit and improvised music using flutes, panderos, our voices and our bodies. We sang and danced in a circle – freely, without any facilitation!

Over the week we also took walks to the local waterfall, and some of the singing that took place can be heard at the start of the track. I also recorded natural sounds of the area – the thunder, the rain and the waterfall which can be heard.

All of these sounds from our time together were put together to form the final song.

As we start our busy lives in 2015, may this song serve as an inspiring reminder of all the music that was made, the stories that were told and the connections that were made over that magical week at Vale De Luz.

With love,

Simon