Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the globe in 2020, the way we connect with ourselves and others has been challenged in ways that today’s generations haven’t experienced before, giving way to collective feelings of grief and anxiety that are hard to deal with alone. Argentina’s Luvi Torres and Chancha Via Circuito are two artists who use their art to heal listeners. And with their new collaborative endeavor, they give us a tool to reconnect.
The four tracks on Chancha Via Circuito and Luvi Torres’ Ceremonia EP, coming out on Wonderwheel Recordings on October 15, are ready for us to immerse ourselves into, encouraging us to seek reinvention with their comforting words and sounds. The marriage between Pedro Canale’s celebrated electronic/organic compositions and the mantras Torres uses in their therapeutic practice creates a soul-warming moment that couldn’t come in a better moment.
“Sano,” the third track on the EP, immediately sends us into a meditative space, with Luvi beaming healing rays in our direction in form of harmonies and affirmations, and Canale creating contemplative atmospheres and deep tones that resonate in our bodies. The single comes with a music video directed by Tomas Wurschmidt and Paz Elduayen. Shot in black and white in the Calchaquí Valleys, in Tucuman, Argentina, it was inspired by El Vuelo de las Luciérnagas, an Argentine folk tale.
This is the first Chancha Via Circuito project since 2020’s Pleamar, his joint EP with El Búho. On the other hand, Torres, known in their home country for their work as an artist and sound therapist, recently released their acoustic EP TRANSELEMENTES.
Remezcla touched base with Canale and Torres so they could open a window for us into the Ceremonia universe and learn more about this collaboration. They answered our questions via email in conjunction.
How did the relationship between Chancha Via Circuito and Luvi Torres start?
We’d known and admired each other for several years now, but the idea of working together came from Luvi. During the winter of 2019, they researched therapeutic uses of the voice in a project called 21 Days, comprising 21 sung and danced affirmations. They immediately reached out to various music producers to be part of the project. Pedro replied and he was happy to participate.
We then met to sow a beautiful friendship and a creative collaboration together, transforming the original project into a new one, 100% developed, nurtured, and birthed as a team.
How was the process of working together like while creating the songs on Ceremonia?
All the lyrics and melodies were originally born as medicinal chants from everyday situations, like “Sano,” which came up when Luvi had a burning fever as they were taking care of their three-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Two years after [“Sano”’s inception], Pedro’s contribution music- and production-wise made this track one of the most enveloping jewels in Ceremonia.
What concept were you trying to explore with the music and lyrics on Ceremonia?
We both tried to cultivate in our own way a connection with the spiritual realm, which is inherently tied to music. Ceremonia tries to join the listener to establish that deep connection with the inner listening.
What do you feel is the importance of Ceremonia? And specifically a song like “Sano” in today’s world, which continues to be impacted by a pandemic?
Music, sound, and vibration have been hugely important elements for human development since primitive times, on cognitive, psychomotor, emotional, cultural, social, and political levels. We’re living in a time of deep transformation on a personal and collective level. Changes and challenges which, in both the concrete and the subtle, encourage us to make better decisions as people and society. Are we going to keep replaying in our mind violent, oppressive discourses, disconnected from our true essential being? Are we gonna keep feeding a system that intends to subject us to consumerism, extractivism, ignorance, and fragmentation? Are we gonna keep projecting the enemy in the differences we find instead of looking for meeting points in the diversity that helps us integrate who we are? Are we gonna keep turning a deaf ear to the countless calls and alarms from our bodies, minds, and hearts that beg us to wake up from the dream that once our souls fell into? Are we gonna keep searching outside what’s inside of us?
Music connects some wires in our minds and our emotions in ways other languages and discourses all over the world can’t. This is the moment to consume, share, execute, create, and communicate conscious content that calls us to reflect and integrate in every sense.
Ceremonia is out October 15 on Wonderwheel Recordings. Preorder here.
