This song began when I worked with the Amazonian NGO Alianza Arkana near Pucallpa in the latter part of 2015. I was told by another one of the volunteers that an indigenous craftsman of musical instruments would be stopping by, and that he would be selling these beautiful handmade flutes. The flutes were handpainted with exquisite visionary images by a friend of his, work perhaps inspired by the ayahuasca visions of Shipibo painter and curando Pablo Amaringo. I took the flute with me when I had my second dieta in October outside the city near the tiny Shipibo hamlet of San Salvador. Libélula means dragonfly. There used to be this little grotto near the river where many dragonflies would hang out. While playing to them this melody came to mind and eventually I began singing it in ceremony. In this song I express gratitude for the dragonfly and the ability of Madre Ayahuasca to open our eyes to the transcendent beauty of the natural world. The song is deceptively simple. One of the things that I like about it is this simplicity. It is practically a chant, and there is no verse-chorus-verse structure to it. It has three sections, and all are in different tempos. Because of this I performed the piece more or less “live” on the guitar and then added the singing and other instruments to it. This made it very difficult to mesh the tracks I added later with the original bed track that had been laid down. Also, because the tempo ebbs and flows I could not easily use MIDI (electronically programmed) instrumentation. Every track, though performed separately, had to be performed live. As the song’s tracks ballooned to twenty distinct recordings, my trusty old macbook started to fail on me. Eventually I managed to squeak out this mix. This song had a difficult birth and has been a very humbling learning experience for me. During my first trip to Peru in September of 2014 I spent time in the jungle near Iquitos. There I made several field recordings from my little tambo out in the jungle. My tambo was the furthest away from the others in our little “camp”, and I had some enjoyable afternoons observing monkeys and listening to the wildlife. At night it was a veritable symphony of sounds, insects, owls, frogs and other amphibians all combining to make an immersive jungle soundscape. The recording at the beginning of La Libélula is a day recording that was made in my tambo with a ZOOM recorder I had packed along for my trip. Once written, the vocal was something I sang in ceremony acapella. I decided to flesh it out with other instrumentation for this recording. As I duplicated the opening melody on the guitar and dropped a simple pulsing bass note at the bottom, I started harmonizing it in fifths. This gave the song a decidedly Zen feel to it, which coincides with the naturalistic themes of dragonflies, water, trees and so forth. As I worked on the song here in Argentina, more and more large dragonflies started appearing in our back yard. Seriously, like everyday they would hang out near our grape vines, buzzing about and sometimes flitting by the window where I was working. The night I finished my final mix one flew in and sat by the large glass door to our patio. I gently picked it up and released it outside. It did a large circle around our garden, and buzzed straight back inside and perched above me on the ceiling. An interested party, she wanted to hear the final mix. Since finishing the song, the dragonflies have pretty much left. I see one once in a while, but no where near like it was during the recording of this song. Perhaps its the change in the weather. Perhaps not. Hmmmm…??? La Libélula (Gracias Ayahuasca) The Dragonfly (Thank you Ayahuasca) La Libélula, Libélu lo La Libélula, Libélu la lo Li-di-li-di Li-di-li-di Li-di-li-di la lo Li-di-li-di Li-di-li-di Li-di-li-di lo la lo la lo Gracias, gracias Ayahuasca Thank you, thank you Ayahuasca Gracias, gracias otra vez Thank you, thank you once again Gracias, gracias Medicina Thank you, thank you Medicine Gracias, gracias otra vez Thank you, thank you once again Gracias, gracias Papa Cielo Thank you, thank you Father Sky Gracias, gracias Pacha Mama Thank you, thank you Mother Earth Gracias, gracias Ayahuasca Thank you, thank you Ayahuasca Gracias, gracias otra vez Thank you, thank you once again Gracias, gracias por la lluvia Thank you, thank you for the Rain Gracias, gracias por los Rios Thank you, thank you for the Rivers Gracias, gracias Medicina Thank you, thank you Medicine Gracias, gracias otra vez Thank you, thank you once again Gracias, gracias por la Selva Thank you, thank you for the Forest Gracias, gracias por los arboles Thank you, thank you for the Trees Gracias, gracias Ayahuasca Thank you, thank you Ayahuasca Gracias, gracias otra vez Thank you, thank you once again Gracias, gracias por los Pesces Thank you, thank you for the Fishes Colibris y Libélulas Hummingbirds and Dragonflies Gracias, gracias Medicina Thank you, thank you Medicine Gracias, gracias otra vez Thank you, thank you once again Gracias por el Otorongo Thank you for the Jaguar Gracias, gracias por el Condor Thank you, thank you for the Condor Gracias, gracias Ayahuasca Thank you, thank you Ayahuasca Gracias, gracias otra vez Thank you, thank you once again Gracias, gracias Curandero Thank you, thank you Healer Gracias, gracias Maestro Thank you, thank you Teacher Gracias, gracias Medicina Thank you, thank you Medicine Gracias, gracias otra vez Thank you, thank you once again Gracias, gracias Ayahuasca Thank you, thank you Ayahuasca Gracias, gracias otra vez Thank you, thank you once again
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