Medicine Singers
Experimental Powwow
The Medicine Singers collective emerged from a chance encounter between the Eastern Medicine Singers, an Eastern Algonquin powwow group, and NY producer and guitarist Yonatan Gat, who invited the group to a spontaneous collaboration on stage at SXSW 2017 after seeing them play outside the venue as he was about to take the stage. That pivotal meeting ignited a half-decade-long friendship that saw the musicians sharing some of the biggest festival stages in Europe, Canada and the United States, bringing powwow music to places where it has never been heard before. Their explosive collaboration reaches another peak with the coming release of their self titled full length album Medicine Singers on Gat’s new imprint under the Joyful Noise umbrella, Stone Tapes as well as boutique label and friends Mothland in Canada.
With their debut, Medicine Singers have bridged multiple dimensions of sound while expanding into a remarkable supergroup that includes Thor Harris and Christopher Pravdica of Swans, ambient music pioneer Laraaji, “no wave” icon and former DNA drummer Ikue Mori, and trumpet player Jaimie Branch, a rising star in the world of improvised music. Medicine Singers created a spellbinding musical experience, cycling through a kaleidoscope of sounds, from psychedelic punk to spiritual jazz and electronic music. But the genre-smashing album remains firmly rooted in the intense physical power of the powwow drum and the Eastern Medicine Singers’ connection to their ancestral music, creating a daring and ambitious record that celebrates tradition, while boldly breaking away from its restrictions, or in the words of Medicine Singers’ leader Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson: “These two cultures can work together, and blend together. We created something that needs to be out there in the world, to show people how we can work together and make something beautiful.”
Albums
Shows
Video
Press
“Language, and the preservation of it, is central to the music that the Medicine Singers make; an act of resistance and healing from hundreds of years of colonization rendered in song.”
“[...] un premier album inouï où se rencontrent la tradition du pow-wow, le jazz, le rock et la musique d’avant-garde. La puissance hypnotique des rythmes de danse autochtones se révèle d’une saisissante modernité [...]”
“Medicine Singers bridges the gap between deep-rooted tradition and the avant garde. ”
“The strongest moments on the record feel transformative. ”
“The chimerical record’s experimental powwow, psychic jazz, and gritty no-wave punk ranges from meditative to terrifying.”