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.