Introspective Course

1th Album

The intent of this album is to describe the tortuous path of the human mind that tears itself apart trying to stay afloat in a frenetic and illusory “system”.
Through strong and deep sounds I try to express what was said above, moving from a dark atmosphere to a more harmonious one, since this is the effort that man makes on himself to obtain the ascent of inner joy.
I took inspiration from a trip along the Rio Amazonas, where I met a Curandero, who performed for the occasion an Ayauascha ceremony, a sacred plant with magical properties (allucenogere), or, as the shamans say, “the gift of uniting the material world with the spiritual one”.
I tried to develop the CD as two parallel experiences, one of which is simply a real “physical” journey, while the other is an Introspective Journey, where he protrudes, clashing with his nightmares and most transcendental desires, struggling to hide the most remote fears of his psyche.
And what I want is to resurrect them. To facilitate the description, I created an imaginary character who completes his inner journey.
The story begins with an ordinary citizen walking in a chaotic City (1st track), but his attention is attracted by a Wanderer playing the flute at the end of a loggia. The mind of the model citizen begins to swirl in a thousand thoughts, entering a desperate existential torment (2nd track).
In an instant he feels disoriented, completely alone in the crowd.
He observes the eyes of the vagabond, they are a little melancholic but serene and without apparent worldly ties. At this point the citizen sees his whole life as if clinging to the web of a large invisible spider that binds him and commands him like a puppeteer with his strings. After spending a harrowing night, he decides to turn his life around, to find meaning in his dull existence.
He boards a plane (3rd track) to embark on a journey to the Amazon (4th track), rhythms and sounds involve the traveler in his unknown destination (5th track). From here he comes across a strange character who turns out to be a Curandero. He is then hosted in his humble cabin where he lives with his family. During his stay the Curandero advises him to try the experience of Ayauascha, inviting him to go with him to the Selva to look for the mysterious plant.
In shamanic culture they believe that it is the plant itself that attracts the person towards itself (6th track), since the animistic tradition believes that both the animal and plant worlds and for some populations even the mineral world, each of these have a soul. Therefore, where one’s soul is not in good relationship with these entities, illness or any kind of imbalance can arise.
The citizen, during the search, perceives the weight of the immense vegetation that surrounds him, feeling in deep disharmony in his relationships with the environment, everything seems to be hostile towards him (7th track). But thanks to these sensations the citizen gradually acquires the awareness that in reality it is only he who opposes the spontaneous flow of life itself.
He cries, he despairs of his small and immense sins, but like the mythological Phoenix he feels that he can be reborn after the fire from his own ashes.
As night falls the ceremony begins (8th track). Slowly the shaman’s song involves the body and the senses, the perceptions of himself and of the surrounding environment take on thousands of different nuances.
Oblivion, ecstasy mix in a deep emotional euphoria, fears materialize becoming real, reality instead appears as a bizarre and illusory image.
Manias of persecution, Demons and Angels appear to the senses of the “traveler”, but with the help of the guide (the Curandero) it is not allowed to cross the threshold of pure madness, where the psyche can definitively dissociate itself from reality (subjective), since, as I believe, madness is only a “posthumous” of a great, more superior reality, which is reached by two different paths, or by torment, or by revelation, but unfortunately not able to control.
As in all therapies after suffering the mind enters a state of quiet, frees itself from conflicts and frustrations and the Spirit is raised (9th track). Finally, after a night of internal battle, dawn breaks (10th track), our protagonist still feels the after-effects of the sleepless night, his senses are still slightly altered, but inexorably dawn lights up the battlefield.

The light manifests the splendor of creation but the Ayauascha is slow to dispose of, lights, colors invade the landscape, making the traveler fall back into moments of ordeal states (11th track). Finally he sinks into sleep, even if dreams keep the mind alert, floating in other places, the awakening is dramatic, a new light illuminates the traveler, a new self-awareness seems to germinate (12th track), but, awareness can bring even more frustration and upon returning from his journey he perceives that everything around him is an illusion, in the faces of people there are many masks fossilized by conditioned archetypes, rituals support fragile souls with desires for order, he perceives that fear is the form of all evils (13th track). The only thought that lifts the days of the new citizen is that the soul of a man resides in a child who discovers the world for the first time, and therefore observes it and searches for it like the mother’s breast.