Vedun ensemble and harmonising sounds

All the musicians are multi-instrumentalists and singers. Their sound fabric, crafted from the gems of the world’s musical heritage, is strongly harmonising; it expands consciousness and reaches into the depths of spirit and heart. Vedun concerts are special and globally rare. They are a unique experience. The content of a concert by the Vedun / Trutamora Slovenica Ensemble is based on over 50 years of research into the Slovene and world’s musical and spiritual heritages, carried out by Mira Omerzel – Mirit, Ph.D., who is the global instigator of ethno-archaeo-medical/vibrational musicology. Besides a musical education, the most precious training for contemporary veduns has been the combination of learning in Mirit’s spiritual-therapeutic Veduna School and travelling across the world, meeting and collaborating with the keepers of musical traditions of different cultures on all continents.

The Vedun Ensemble connects art, science, the folk tradition, and the world’s spiritual wisdom. It brings back to ancient music its enchanting, magical, revered, and harmonising tones – from the past for the future. For harmony and peace within us and in the world.

Vedun Ensemble concerts are a special experience. They are a dance of unusual sounds, rhythms, harmonies, energies, feelings, and colours. An echo of the current moment. Alone or with the Ensemble, Mirit has, for well over 50 years, carried out more than 35 personal and creative revolutions not only in the fields of art (music), science, and education

but also in various fields of questing and the teaching of life and spiritual wisdom. In essence, these revolutions are evolutions which contribute significantly to raising people’s awareness and to developing the above-mentioned disciplines. All of this is reflected in the Vedun Ensemble’s music, which is a powerful sound-energy therapy, following in the footsteps of ancient wisdom. Amongst the most important
revolutions have been: the unveiling, revival, archival reconstruction and preservation of the sonic and spiritual roots of the Slovenes of past eras, ‘pre-classical’ musical instruments and ancient songs of the world, ancient musical techniques and practices that had been buried in oblivion. These are all revolutions in our understanding of musical and spiritual dimensions.

RESTORING PRECIOUS KNOWLEDGE, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, SONGS, MUSICAL PRACTICES, AND THE SONIC GEMS OF THE SLOVENE, EUROPEAN AND THE WORLD’S HERITAGES

Music is an exceptional gift, a reflection of history and human striving. It is a miracle that is difficult to describe and a reflective echo of every culture. Music is a remedy and an inspiration, an effective ELIXIR OF LIFE. It is crucial to understand the building blocks of sound. Spontaneous expression through music, when it is not being fixed into rigid patterns, sets free dormant, as yet undiscovered abilities, and boundless creative forces. For this reason alone harmonising musical possibilities should always be available to everyone. Music is a unique language of sound, speaking to and expanding the human spirit and consciousness, confirming and awakening within people the eternal yearning of the soul to delve into the magical realms of the unknown.

Both deliberate and spontaneous sound plays have the ability to shape harmony and peace within people. For hundreds, even thousands of years, cultures of the past nurtured the wisdom of how to USE SOUND TO REACH BENEFICENT SILENCE! They passed this down from generation to generation. And just like our planetary ancestors, people living today are seeking the same timeless gifts. At all times, in all countries and historical periods, people have sought out keys to beneficence. These keys are reflected in sound patterns as well as in the powers to harmonise life. They belong to all of humanity.
Music CONNECTS the earthly with the beyond – THE CYCLE OF LIFE AND DEATH. It offers precious tools for knowing the dimensions of reality in which we live on Earth; tools for the expansion of spirit and awareness. Musician-healers, known as VEDUNS in Slavic cultures, were – and in some places still are – Masters of creating harmonising sound images. They are MASTER WEAVERS OF THE LIFE ENERGY OF SPIRIT AND BODY

Performing a spontaneous and living (not computerised!) sound play and safeguarding the precious sound keys of the past, veduns live as fulfilled a life as possible and serve humanity. Contemporary veduns – the musicians of the Slovene Vedun Ensemble – embrace gifts and tasks similar to those of their predecessors: HARMONISING THROUGH THEIR PERFORMANCES (singing and playing ancient forgotten musical instruments) in a transcendental state of consciousness (also called COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS which is considered the highest level of consciousness). Veduns shape sound in a theta ‘shamanic trance’ (in medical terms: EEG theta state between 4 and 8 Hz) and this is a particular challenge for them. Sound created in this way carries exceptional power and therapeutic efficacy. Their musical performance draws upon DIFFERENT MELOS, MUSICAL PRACTICES, AND SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS OF THE WORLD. THIS IS REFLECTED IN THE RICHNESS OF THEIR SOUND, WHICH HONES ACCEPTANCE OF DIFFERENTNESS AND MULTICULTURAL TOLERANCE.

Listeners are invited to a special celebration, to a distinct concert event, to an unveiling and a sonic feast of SLOVENE AND SLAVIC roots, within which the musicians braid different musical languages of THE WORLD’S CULTURES into a sound-energy and therapeutic yarn. Unique concerts of the Vedun Ensemble, accompanied by the sounds of the revived and reconstructed musical languages of the past, are extraordinary SOUND THERAPIES at the same time. More than fifty years of Mirit’s ethno-musicological researches have now passed, as have 45 years of her cultural endeavours, presentations and revival of the ancient mysteries of sound, spirit, and the musical heritages of the past.

After 45 years of work at home and abroad, the Vedun Ensemble (previously Trutamora Slovenica / Truta) continues its mission: researching and reviving both the Slovene musical and spiritual heritage and the world’s heritage of sound. Throughout this long creative period, the Ensemble has constantly revealed and unveiled new (and simultaneously old) dimensions of sound and heritage, deepening their performance practice. Their presentations include numerous reconstructed ancient songs, a versatile array of forgotten instruments, and overlooked musical practices that may even seem unusual today.

Over time, their revival of Slovene, European and foreign ancient and folk music has extended into demanding SOUND-THERAPEUTIC WORK, which has taken them into a distinct (self-)deepening, into an exploration and a broader experience of the parameters of sound. Into a veritable sound-energy ceremony. For this reason, the Ensemble is the most important tool of Mirit’s spiritual school Veduna, a Slavic-Pythagorean School for the Development of Consciousness and Harmonisation through Sound.

Together with the musicians – veduns, Mira Omerzel – Mirit bestows upon people a distinct magic of sound. Using sonic alchemy, contemporary veduns, just like their ancient ancestors, help people to find a way through the labyrinth of life. A way to their own soul. The musician-therapists try to bring back to musical performance an ancient harmonising role which awakens the essence and sacredness of sound and spirit.

Their musical performance is a distinct QUEST FOR ONENESS, COMPLETENESS, HARMONIES, euphonies and deep internalisation, a celebration of DIVERSITY AND SIMILARITY within the historical memory of the cultures and musical practices of the past. The fullness of the meta-sensory dimension found within their sound expression ennobles the audience as well as the performers, and deeply surpasses ordinary musical performances.

Throughout history, ancient sounds, harmonies and rhythms, have had an extremely significant mission: to bestow the exceptional POWER OF HARMONISATION AND (SELF-)HEALING upon musicians and audiences alike. Using spontaneous, channelled sounds and the sonic logoi of the past (for the future!), the Ensemble seeks to RETURN TO MUSIC ITS FORMER, LOST DIMENSIONS AND QUALITIES. The variegated sounds of the Vedun Ensemble reveal a lost world of once highly respected musician-healer-priests: the world of Slavic VEDUNS, Celtic OGHMIS, Illyrian, Balkan LYEROS, etc. They had very important roles in every community – the roles of awakeners, harmonisers, healers, teachers, arbitrators, etc.

At concerts, Vedun Ensemble musicians present primarily our Slavic roots and the foundations of our history – from the most remote pre-history (Palaeolithic bone flutes) until the last folk music and its melos to have a harmonising effect. This effect was preserved until the 20th century, only to then disappear from our everyday lives. The work of the musicians of the Ensemble is based on Mirit’s field, archival, and personal researches and also on the ceaseless spiritual awakening of the musicians’ own spiritual and musical faculties; on THE SONIC QUESTS OF ALL COLLEAGUES, who are mostly educators. In addition, Mirit and her son Tine are mediums for the transmission of Universal, Cosmic life energy into the material world. The Vedun Ensemble is a rarity within a broad creative range.

The musicians of the Vedun Ensemble are curators and ambassadors of the Slavic and the world’s traditional music which is rooted in the magical sounds of ancient, nearly or totally forgotten musical instruments and ways of singing (for example, tender ANCIENT SLOVENE singing, THROAT SINGING from the STYRIA AND RESIA REGIONS, multi-part aliquot Siberian and Mongolian throat singing KHOOMEI, Balkan OJKANJE, ancient European JOIK, and Tibetan GYUTO monk throat singing).
Veduns have been active for 50 years, very enthusiastically and as conscientiously as possible, always WITHOUT THE DISTORTIONS and contemporary popular and fashionable cloaks (pop, jazz, rock, etc.) which are used today by many of their imitators. These pure, restored sonic images of the past have INGENUITY, PURPOSE, MEANING, AND EFFECT, but this will only be noticed by those who listen to them with different senses, with an expanded meta-sensory perception. If those gems have survived for thousands of years, they definitely deserve to be safeguarded further, for generations to come. Because they are a brilliant tool and carry important messages. However, unfortunately most of our Slovene musical heritage has been completely distorted and destroyed in the last 30 years. So-called entertainment music (including popular folk music, such as the Oberkrainer style), which has little in common with regional identities, has put the knowledge and use of the Slovene musical tradition in the shade; it has eclipsed OUR OWN TRADITION’S TIMELESS MESSAGES.

The musicians, all multi-instrumentalists and singers, need to master spontaneous music making and the ability to adjust to each other. Every musical instrument they play has its own story, a tale from the past for the present. Most of the instruments in the Ensemble’s repertoire have been made by great master craftsmen who imbued them with the identity of the countries from which they originate. Many of those instruments continue to be used today to harmonise, align the world, and even heal.
Moreover, since 1999, Mirit and her musical colleagues have been reviving and presenting the gems of other musical traditions of the past (at their core, the Trutamora Slovenica and Vedun Ensembles are ensembles for ancient music). They attempt to revive music’s overlooked MAGIC AND SACREDNESS. Through listening and ACCEPTING DIFFERENCE, performers and listeners expand their consciousness and shape their TOLERANCE FOR DIFFERENCE. A tolerance that is so very lacking in the world. Sounds, which may seem very unusual at first, slowly open up the dimensions of consciousness and the softness of the soul. Mirit also leads her lifelong, sound-energy therapeutic school – the Veduna School (a Slavic-Pythagorean School for the Development of Consciousness and Harmonisation through Sound), where her mission is to ensure that this valuable old knowledge is revived and the valuable ancient wisdom is never forgotten.

VEDUN is an ancient Slavic deity who healed using word and sound. The ancient term VEDUN, denoting Slavic MUSICIANS, HEALERS, AND PRIESTS, is still familiar in some Slavic territories such as Siberia, and of course in Slovenia!

These days, new veduns (the musicians of the Vedun Ensemble) with enthusiasm and zest navigate through the world’s sonic DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES, through the precious knowings of their ancestors. They try to bring back to music a FULLNESS that has been banished or simply overlooked, THE SACREDNESS OF HARMONISING AND ALIGNING THE SPIRIT, BODY, AND LIFE.
A Vedun Ensemble performance is both a labour of restoration and the (spontaneous) personal work of each of the Ensemble’s musicians. When performing together, the artists always first attune between themselves, in order to then fruitfully harmonise the room and their listeners. Their music, rooted in the melos of different cultures, is created with the support and sound images of extremely INGENIOUS MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND SOUND MAKERS and their ingenious tunings, which often emulate those vibrations, or sounds, of the Universe, the planets, and the stars, which are inaudible to the ear, yet can be recognised with our meta-sensory radar. And they all have a HARMONISING EFFECT on listeners. Veduns offer these therapeutic sounds to their listeners. They place Slovene traditional music, which has been honed by countless generations of sages, into A GLOBAL CONTEXT. Onto the global stage. We are all very different, but we do have common denominators, givens, needs, and either shared or different musical patterns.

Their sound yarn is woven from the musicians’ voices, from different, often unusual, singing techniques, and from the sonically special musical instruments of different regions and countries, of Slovenia and other cultures. This yarn usually includes selected FOLK SONGS in their original (or restored) form. But, for their audience, Vedun musicians can also create simply relaxing and calming sound images, simply therapeutic HARMONISING SOUNDS rooted in the different musical and harmonic patterns of the cultures of the world.

1999 saw the Ensemble spontaneously withdraw from the musical scene for several years (mainly due to their intense quest, research, and spiritual self-development). But then the totally unexpected SPONTANEOUS, UNIQUE, AND THERAPEUTIC TRANCE SOUND OF THE VEDUN ENSEMBLE CAME ABOUT. Years before that, the audiences of the Trutamora Slovenica Ensemble – an ensemble for the revival of old Slovene music – had been pointing to the musicians’ increasingly therapeutic musical performances. Listeners would usually come away from a concert feeling lighter and stronger; they would sense that harmonisation processes had been taking place within them.

In the new millennium, the Ensemble expanded their interest to include research into the dimensions and powers of sound. As a pioneer in this field both in Slovenia and globally, Mirit has lectured and written about this topic since her student years. All the musicians of the Vedun Ensemble have been training their ear to hear the barely perceptible layers of sound and music, along with their subtle ENERGY WAVES. These days, at each performance, they spontaneously shape and compose eternally different and UNREPEATABLE SPONTANEOUS SOUNDS OF THE GIVEN MOMENT for the benefit of their audience. Therapeutic sounds. Yet, some old folk melodies and songs also have a harmonising effect. These therapeutic sounds, when joined with the jewels of the folk heritage, confirm the chosen melos of the world. Vedun’s core musical yarn now comprises the musical languages and sound patterns of many different traditions and eras.