Serpentine Arborvitae: News

" September 6: The largest crowd in recent Dome memory showed up for the Human Angel concert, led by Serpentine Arborvitae and accompanied by percussionist River Guerguerian and space-music pioneer Jonn Serrie. Serpentine’s richly textured, powerful voice brought through her original music as Jonn’s cosmic harmonies filled the space and River’s hand drums and gongs softly rhythm-ized it all. At one point, lights darkened and Jonn launched a planetarium-like starry array over the dome ceiling with a song to the heavens."

“Human Angel” to take flight at United Research Light Center
by Andy Grabel ~ Black Mountain News ~ September 3, 2008
Serpentine Arborvitae has always been drawn to the crossroads where spiritual awareness and music meet. Her current musical project “Human Angel” draws on her diverse, multi-cultural and musical influences. Joining her is
" What The Bleep " space music composer Jonn Serrie and world music percussionist River Guerguerian for the premiere performance of “Human Angel” at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the United Research Light Center in Black Mountain.
Arborvitae recently spoke with the Black Mountain News about her upcoming performance, relocating to Black Mountain,
and working with jazz great Ornette Coleman.

Q: What is “Human Angel” and what inspired it?
Arborvitae: I experience Human Angel as an emerging archetype, gathering force out of our expanding human experience on earth.
We are accelerating to the point of being able to consciously live the ideals we’ve always ascribed to heaven and the angelic realm. We can create heaven on earth. We are beams of pure light life force, in human form, born to experience unconditional love, compassion, freedom and joy.

Q: How has working with Jonn Serrie and River Guergarian helped your work?
Arborvitae: John Serrie has been an inspiration by virtue of the music he creates. His enthusiasm and support over the past two years gave me great insights while I was developing the music.
River Guerguerian is one of the musical treasures of Asheville.
His range and passion resonates deeply with my work. Both Jonn and River will be expanding upon my original ideas and I can already feel it is going to be a sublime evening!

Q: How long have you been in Black Mountain and what brought you here to live?
Arborvitae: It was a leap of faith. I didn’t know anything about the area when I came up here two years ago. When I got off the plane, I felt my whole body say ‘yes’. I felt that I belonged here, and it was the right decision. This is an extraordinary area. I am surrounded by so many warm, sincere, authentic people.

Q: What do you hope listeners will get spiritually from your performance?
Arborvitae: To appreciate and understand how we already are perfect. To perceive just how amazing we all are. What a gift this life experience is. Dare to dream! Ask!! Dreams are made to come true.

Q: Jazz great Ornette Coleman was a mentor of yours. How did he help guide your musical path?
Arborvitae: His vision of what music can be, how each individual musician is capable of creating the harmony, the rhythm, and the melody independent of the other musicians while they are playing together. Multiple unisons! Isn’t that where we're heading as a species and planet? Expanding our diversity and appreciating each other’s unique beingness?
Ornette’s musical philosophy and the way in which he composes revealed to me how free sound truly is and all the things it can do when given that freedom.
Ornette has had the strongest influence on the way in which I hear music. My mind and my heart and my spirit expanded through working with him and listening to him play.

Q: How has your music evolved since you began singing in New York jazz clubs?
Arborvitae: I have lived many lifetimes in the process of becoming a musician. Listening and learning from music from all over the world and opening to my own ancestral roots.
I experiment with language as a non- verbal creation. Instead of focusing upon a style, I penetrate the emotional core I want to share and communicate that by drawing from diverse elements without censoring myself, That freedom is magical and sustains me inside out!

Tickets for the performance are $25. To purchase tickets, visit UR Light Center at 2196 NC Highway 9 South, or call 669-6845.

UNITED RESEARCH LIGHT CENTER Presents
" HUMAN ANGEL " in Concert featuring the luminous voice and music of Serpentine Arborvitae. with space music composer Jonn Serrie and percussionist River Guerguerian. Arborvitae’s astonishing vocal range, power and complexity invite listeners to spiral deep into their souls as she artistically interprets the sacred and feminine in her performances. Her music speaks to the mysteries that keep us yearning for more... more truth, more harmony, and more beauty."

I am thrilled to be able to perform the " HUMAN ANGEL" project with space music composer Jonn Serrie and percussionist River Guerguerian next month at the United Research Light Center in Black Mountain NC.

In Mantra America, the ingenious musical working of Serpentine's music is unfolded yet again through a novel exploration of East meets West. The Spirit of Vivekananda himself, the father of eastern thought brought to the west, glows and expands through this bright and melodic unfolding of sitar, tabla, djembe, flute and mantra, mixed in Sanskrit, English and free-flowing tongues; typical of Serpentine's works.
Mantra America, wherewith the title of the disc is derived, opens on a sheer pause to reverence like the dawning of the sun upon the shores of the Chesapeake. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, all of the vortices of this northern American continent are gathered up in this celebratory song. The Native American tone echoes through a rhythmic rotation of praise to the land of the Cherokee, the Creek and the Buffalo. The mantra Serpentine has carefully chosen is “ Om Papa Nasheenyei Namaha “, is for dissolving the effects of negative karma and harmful action.
Mantra America is a must as it conveys a successful fusion of cultures, blending into this continent the spirit of eastern mysticism with the already profound spirits of that which is native to this land. If one enjoys any such variation of Hindu sounds as well as Native American then you have stumbled upon a treasure that in my experience has not been explored before. Once again Serpentine has offered her musical gifts to the world and we are all enriched by them.

RE ISSUED BY POPULAR DEMAND!!!

Now Available at CDBABY.com