Shaman

Description

Seemingly from nowhere, heralded only by the distant howling of wolves and the dramatic crack of thunder, the Shaman appears. In a moment his dance of divine destiny has begun, slowly at first as a single drum helps him pick out the path of ancient footsteps, an instinctive movement drawn deep from the mystical well of intuition. Soon the rhythm swells as the drumbeat deepens in intensity and the medicine man is lost in trance. This is Phil Thornton's homage to the arcane powers of these mysterious priests. The circle of sound is soon swirling with bells, chimes, pipes and background resonance of the didgeridoo as the ritual climbs to a spiritual frenzy where animal sounds signify the Shaman's union with the natural world. Like members of the tribal audience, framed by the flickering flames of night, we too are drawn by the hypnotic power of the music into an empathetic awareness of our extra-sensory potential.