Medicine Music
Summer Solstice · June 21, 2026
Ten songs. Eighteen years.
One community listening together.
The Name
SARAY carries two meanings woven together.
In Kichwa, SARA means corn. Not just food. Corn is culture, economy, and spirit in the Andean world. Spirit of abundance, nourishment, and the bonds that hold a community together.
Saray is also the Kichwa expression for the corn flower in bloom. This album is a prayer for that blossoming. For the flowering of everything corn brings: life, generosity, and the nourishment we offer one another.
And Saray is the name of my daughter. Like corn, children carry the seeds of what we pass forward. These songs are a prayer for peace for the children of this world. For the joy and lightness that lives in them, that we adults sometimes forget.
This album lives at that intersection. Ancestral wisdom and personal love, offered as one gift.
Where They Came From
Over eighteen years of ceremonies, journeys, and moments of deep listening - from the high peaks of the Q'ero Nation in Peru, to the sacred fires of Sumak Kawsay, the Native American Church, the Shuar people of the Ecuadorian jungle, and the Cofán of Colombia - each song arrived as a gift from the invisible world.
My only task was to remember them.
And to bring them home.
“In the Wind, in the Water, in the Fire, and in the Earth - the songs of all those who came before us are kept safe.”
The First Song
In 2005 I was walking in the mountains with Taita Marcelino, a Q'ero elder. A storm was coming. The path was unclear.
He sat down, opened his cloth, and read the coca leaves. Every single leaf pointed the same direction.
As we walked toward what the mountains showed us, a melody arrived. I did not choose it. It chose the moment.
Io vengo dalla montagna dove il silenzio mi parla
Io vengo dalla montagna dove la pietra mi canta...
That was the first song.
There have been many since.
The Bow
“Songs are arrows.
The community is the bow.”
In the traditions I love, a single voice can only travel as far as one arm can throw. But an arrow from a bow travels far.
This is a minga. In the Andes, minga is the communal work of farmers. Not one person calling others to follow. The entire community preparing the ground together.
On June 21, 2026, we will listen together. Not each in private silence. All at the same time. Around the same fire. Like a ceremony.
If your heart says yes - the bow is already in your hands.
What Is Medicine Music
I asked our community what medicine music means to them. These are some of the answers.
Remembering.- Helvecia
Opening consciousness, touching essence, giving direction.- Ruben
Freedom to pray from the heart.- Frane
The power to be listened by the spirit.- JM
Made With
This album was made with Gaddafi Nunez, Paulina Violina, Stefan Suro, Gonzalo Paniagua, Jaume, and Mireia Berdun, alongside family and friends who have been part of this journey.
The Gift
This music is a gift.
SARAY will always be free to listen. These songs came from ceremony, from community, and from the land. They belong to everyone. There is no paywall, no subscription. Just the music, offered openly.
If SARAY moves you and you would like to help it travel further, there are a few ways to support.
Be part of the listening on June 21.
Join the mailing listWays to Support
Visit the store for stickers, prints, and more. Or make a direct contribution.
