Silvia Nakkach
Silvia Nakkach is a legendary singer, voice teacher, and pioneer in the field of sound, transformation of consciousness, and music shamanism, not to mention a Bay Area treasure. Her work at CIIS has covered three decades of stunning mentorship, creativity, and the spawning of numerous singers to find their own muses.
Silvia is also the founding director of The Vox Mundi School, an international project devoted to teaching and preserving indigenous musical traditions and combining music, service, and spiritual practice. She has contributed an extensive body of therapeutic vocal techniques that have become landmarks in the fields of sound healing and cross-cultural music therapy training. Nakkach was selected by Utne Reader as “one of 40 international artists who will shake the art world.”
Even with a dozen albums to date, Sylvia still surprised me with the depth and utter majesty of Liminal, her latest recording. It is truly an ambient masterpiece, ably aided by Marin musician and producer Todd Boston, whose presence is everywhere evident. His playing is heard seamlessly throughout, on guitar, piano, keyboards, guitarviol, and sound design. Joining Todd in support of Silvia’s transcendent vision are David Darling on cello, Jeff Oster on trumpet, and Val Serrant on percussion and voice.
Overall, it’s a gentle journey through fluid sound and ephemeral voices moving, transforming, and dissolving like clouds in the sky. Listening becomes a place where one can go when needing more space, inside and out. Liminal conveys a state between states with original music unattached to any form. In this aural continuum, the human element becomes the central focus, opening a new field of possibilities through playing both in and with the environment itself. Skygazing from the perspective of clouds, perhaps? Either way, take flight and land softly with Liminal.
VoxMundiProject.com
—LLOYD BARDE (LLOYDBARDE.COM)