By Rollo Ross
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Brazilian DJ and producer Alok is setting aside his traditional modern electronic dance music to focus on something even more traditional – indigenous songs from his country.
His new album “The Future is Ancestral,” released on Friday, features nine dance tracks mixed with indigenous songs, some of which have been sung for centuries by Brazilian tribes.
The inspiration for the project came from a trip to a remote Brazilian tribe in 2016, when the DJ was feeling depressed.
“At that moment, I realized that I was a bit miserable in a way where I was doing songs only to work in the Top Ten radio, whereas they were doing songs for healing but also to spread their culture,” said Alok, 32, while in Los Angeles for a concert featuring the new album.
“I just didn’t know why, but I knew I had to do an album in collaboration with indigenous people because that was something that was in a way a calling.”
He told his team to put everything on hold and instead focus on doing an album with indigenous people.
“After two months, we were in a studio with eight different tribes around the whole of Brazil, not only the Amazon but all of Brazil, producing this album in collaboration,” Alok said.
“Honestly, it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, you know, in a studio session because I was learning again and it was also a different change,” he added.
All proceeds from the album sales are going directly back to Brazil’s indigenous communities, but Alok went even further.
As nearly all of the indigenous tribes use songs to maintain their language and heritage, separate from the album, he has recorded 113 indigenous songs to enshrine these ancient songs forever.
“One of the spiritual leaders, when I showed him the recording, he started to cry because he said for the last eight years, he was singing every night in front of a river, so that he wouldn’t forget the songs, so now you know they have it,” Alok said.
A documentary about the making of the album is coming out soon.
As part of the overall project of “The Future is Ancestral,” he wants to not only lift indigenous voices but have them heard about the environment.
“I think it’s the way they deal with nature, the way we do not anymore so every time we think about how we can create a sustainable future, it’s very interesting to have them on board to co-create together,” he said.
The project is already bearing fruit.
“The most important thing is like how people are really respecting them in a different perspective, where you always had the mindset that the indigenous, they are savage because they never had the opportunity to tell their own stories,” Alok said.
(Reporting by Rollo Ross; Editing by Mary Milliken and Richard Chang)
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