CAN CHANTRESS SEBA HEAL AMSTERDAM?
Music as medicine in ‘spiritually healing’ performance
My brother asked me to come to a spiritual healing music gig on a Friday night. It was a band called Chantress Seba, playing Amsterdam’s mighty Dominicus Church.
I really didn’t want to go. Because generally on a Friday night I’m not thinking about healing. Quite the opposite in fact. But he convinced me. I’m glad he did.
My hesitations were numerous. I do quite like spiritual music, but for me that’s gospel, blues and spiritual jazz - and maybe some Indian mantras if the time is right (i.e. when practising yoga).
But I’m not really here for wishy-washy wailing set to steelpans. Which is what I gathered this band was about was from a cursory listen for 20 seconds on YouTube before the gig. I actually hate the steelpans.
But I was wrong. My brother was right.
The experience was really interesting and SURPRISING on multiple levels.
First on expectation. I was clearly the only guest out of over a thousand people who didn’t know the band. The crowd was going nuts. Secondly they weren’t really a band. But I’m hard pushed to identify exactly what they are.
Fascinatingly enough, as I found out later, they only play live. They don’t record. They have been going for less than two years, and have never made a record. But they pack out venues all over - and for their three nights in Amsterdam, the tickets were sold out in minutes.
So let me repeat that: they only play live. They don’t record in a studio. The only way people know them is through YouTube, where they post hour-long ‘jams’. They mostly play at ceremonies (which is code for psychedelic somatic healing events that sometimes involve shamans and ayahuasca ).
So what is this music? Well, this is also where it gets interesting.
The singer, Gemini, doesn't sing, she channels. She invokes different spiritual entities, and together with her husband, the steelpan-slash-guitar player, they don’t just invoke spirits musically, but spiritually - inviting them into the room to be present with us mere mortals. This isn’t just a concept or play acting, this is the purpose of their music. And I have to say it felt kind of real. Even to the cynics amongst us (me).
And then there was the healing. The guitarist Finn made sure to underline their music wasn’t just soothing or uplifting but actually spiritually healing.
He started the ‘gig’ off by opening with the words that we are gathered here to do what humans have done for millions of years - be together and make music.
He explained we are all family. We are all brothers and sisters, and we are one.
The surprising thing was how convincing this was and how genuinely it landed.
Immediately we were all brothers and sisters. Obviously I was already there with my brother, so we already were brothers and sisters, but you get my point.
But the funniest surprise came right at the start. From their clothes, their presence, their almost prehistoric ceremonial vibe, I assumed they had come straight from an indigenous community in the Amazon.
But when they started talking, they both spoke with a broad Leeds accent.
What the actual F ?!
So many surprises in one night. But the biggest one?
I might actually be healed - albeit against my will.
