Here is a URL to an australian radio program
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/intothemusic/stories/2009/2627511.htmIcaros - Magical Songs from Peru takes us on a journey deep into the heart of the Amazonian rainforest, travelling with Liz Thompson and Simon Green to meet shamanic healers or 'curanderos' as they generously share their 'icaros' or magical songs.
Icaros have been used for millennia to cure and to curse, to hunt and to heal, to mediate between the world of the spirits and the world of humans.
They are sung to this day for a multitude of purposes, and often in ceremony, to call in protective spirits, cure illness, activate the healing properties of medicinal plants, attract lovers, call spirits of the dead and alter the weather or, on occasion, for the more malicious purpose of brujeria (sorcery). Curandero Don Juan tells of icaros used to heal babies within the field of shamanic pediatrics. 'There are' he says, 'pediatric icaros, surgical icaros, dental icaros .... all icaros have a specific healing function or purpose. In the same way that allopathic medicine is specialised, so too is the science of icaros'.
The songs might be taught by an elder 'shaman', but most often they come to the curandero from the spirit realm. Shamanic cosmology is grounded in a belief that plants have consciousness and particular knowledge they are able to communicate. 'I work with the vibration of the icaro , vibrate the sounds, that's where the energy is , it's in the vibration', says Mestizo curandero Don Lucho, 'When I'm in a trance, when I'm with the plant in trance, then I have this energy, this power, which is an exchange of energies between myself and the plant'.
Whilst many icaros come from the plants, curanderos tell of songs received from mermaids and dolphins, from the rain mother, the animals, the snakes, the rivers and stars, in dreams or the waking state. These remarkable melodies have been woven into a compelling soundscape, an aural journey into the realms inhabited by the practitioners of this ancient art.
Thanks go to Justin Touyz, Carlos Tanner and all the curanderos who shared their songs and knowledge for the creation of this program.
