Music therapist, percussionist, and didjeridu master Will Seachnasaigh has lived among the Yolgnu people of Australia's Northwest Territory, studying the ways this ancient culture uses music for healing and meditation.
The didjeridu, one of the oldest instruments known to humankind, is made from a simple eucalyptus branch hollowed out by termites. The aboriginal Yolgnu are capable of using this haunting horn to put both the player and listener into a deep and meditative healing state.
The indigenous musicians who evolved this instrument often used music to create a bridge between the ordinary world and the Dreamtime, a spiritual dimension of being where the cosmos is given shape and meaning. In the Dreamtime, connections to nature and one's own basic instincts are the source of healing.
Each composition on this unique hybrid recording uses didjeridu with specific pitches accompanied by other instrumentation to call forth "musical archetypes" that conjure up the Dreamtime. The tones and rhythms are based on modern medical understandings about the potential of sound for enhancing healing and well-being.