New CD Light of Aluna by Anima

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Anima's healing music is an offering of peace and harmony to the Earth, and with their latest album, Light of Aluna, they celebrate the cosmic principle of "The Great Mother" who gives life to all living things. Anima's enchanting, healing, spiritual, new age music blends electronic soundscapes with acoustic instrumentations (piano, guitar, flutes, Tibetan bowls) and beautiful vocals (sacred chants as well as wordless singing) that combine with both deep ambience and subtle uplifting melodies to create compositions that encourage and enable meditation, healing, inner journeying, transformational mind-shifts, personal peace and relaxation/stillness.

Anima is a duo based in the United Kingdom with Ali composing, performing and producing the music and Daniela composing and performing vocals and guitar. Anima's music is available in CD and MP3 format and can be purchased on their website (AnimaSoundMedicine.co.uk). Prior to Light of Aluna, Anima released other popular CDs (Sound Medicine, Temple of the Stars, Temple of the Heart, Crystaligned Dreams and Lemuria Emerging). In addition, Ali has two solo albums, Star Ancestory and Celestial Baptism.

Ali and Daniela have both spent considerable time living with indigenous elders and teachers, studying ancient ways of ceremony, spirit medicine, yoga and the use of sacred sound. More information about the healing work they offer can be found at alunahealing.co.uk. They met in 2005, and while traveling in Mexico the following year, they began performing music together. Later that year, they rejoined in Peru, and recorded their first album together while living in the Amazon jungle and the Andes Mountains. Since then, their recordings have chronicled an evolving journey of musical alchemy inspired by ancient wisdom and the awakened heart. "We chose the name Anima because in various languages and cultures it means soul, breath, air, life force and feminine spirit energy, " Ali says.

"The precious time that we have spent immersed within the indigenous ways of life and their living connection to the world of spirit, has deeply enriched our lives, and reawakened our natural ability to connect and work with the healing energies of Nature, " explains Ali. "It's this connection that is imbued within the music that we create, and infuses it with a kind of magnetic quality that affects and touches people, and brings about healing experiences that our music is known for.

"The word Aluna comes from the Kogi, and represents the spirit world, the dream of The Great Mother, where the living knowledge, the seed, the essence of all things exist before manifesting into our physical world. Through connecting and aligning ourselves with Aluna, we naturally begin to open our eyes to the Dream and Will of the Great Mother. Through this alignment we can begin to recapitulate the cause of our imbalances, and see that it's our individual soul's responsibility to rectify the offenses that have left us with outstanding debts to The Mother. We each have a contract with our Great Mother, who gives us life, and when we do not fulfill what we have agreed to do; we accrue spiritual debt as the energy she has given is not honored with sacred reciprocity."

In South America there is an ancient civilization that has remained untainted by the modern world, an indigenous tribe called the Kogi who live in Colombia on an isolated five-mile-high mountain. Their remarkable way of life was unveiled as teachings for the world in the 1990 BBC TV-documentary "From the Heart of the World, " the 1992 book The Elder Brothers by Alan Ereira, and the 2012 feature film documentary "Aluna" that they created as a followup. The Kogi decided to speak out because they see our modern way of life is destroying the earth and failing to maintain the balance required by Aluna, mother of the world. They see the earth itself is a living body in which everything is interconnected (including the physical world and the spirit world) and that damage to some of it is damage to all of it.

A percentage of the profits from Anima's album goes to the Tairona Heritage Trust, who have been working on behalf of Gonavindua Tairona, a political organization founded by the Mammas (priests) of the Kogi, the Arhuaco and the Assario Tribes in order to represent their interests in the face of increasing Western pressures.

"The intent behind the music on this album, " states Ali, "is to harmonize with the energy and great light that is Aluna; and to open a potential doorway for people to begin to get a sense of and contemplate this deep original knowledge that is still retained by the Kogi in their way of life and absolute dedication to the Great Mother."

The Light of Aluna album cover shows Earth being formed and enveloped in light. The cover also describes the music as "Sonic Transmissions from The Heart of The Divine Mother." The tunes on the recording have titles that reflect the spirit of Aluna, and hope for proper re-alignment of the world and a restructuring of the priorities of the entire human-race ("The New Dream, " "Ocean of Heart, " "Ancient Future, " "Peace, " "Inner Light" and "Divine Emanation"). The music appropriately starts with the sound of gentle waters brushing against a shoreline and, as the album progresses, there are moments of deep stillness, but also passages of melodic acoustic guitar and piano, notes used in a repetitive form to create meditative moods, caressing synthesizer swells, indigenous timeless male voices chanting in the background, electronic sounds melding the human voice with futuristic musical visions, and the pure warm enchanting voice of Daniela weaving her delicate harmonies within the mix.

"The vocals on the Light of Aluna album are an expression of particular energies shaped into sounds, " explains Daniela. "The sounds carry a vibration and resonance, and speak on an energetic level to the heart and soul."

Ali was drawn to music at an early age; and with his sensitivity and connection to the luminous worlds, he learned to develop a unique style of sculpturing sounds that can invigorate and awaken the soul's knowing. Ali's affinity with Nature called him to ancient and spiritual places; first to the sacred sites of the highlands and islands of Scotland, and later the Himalayas, and South America. On each journey he was trained by different elders and shaman, and underwent various initiations into ancient indigenous traditions, working with sacred plants and spirit teachers.

Also intensely influenced by the natural world, Daniela took an early interest in art, poetry, music and healing. She earned a Fine Arts degree and spent extensive time in the mountains and forests as well as at ancient sacred sites composing music and art, and learning from the land. Through many years of travelling, personal transformation and training in the healing arts, her work is dedicated to supporting others to develop a deeper connection to their true and authentic selves through the practices of yoga, healing, bodywork and sound medicine.

"The compositions on Light of Aluna are an offering to The Great Mother, asking for Her blessings and help to find a way to deepen our connection with the pure essence of the origin of our souls, " states Daniela. "May we as a people return to the ways of harmony and balance, finding the courage to take responsibility for all of our actions. We each have the power to choose to walk in beauty and peace - to care for and protect one another and our Earth. Every thought, every word, every sound is a vibration that echoes throughout the universe. This music is our prayer - a ripple of love in the great ocean of Aluna."

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