The Shaman’s Heart (reviews)
“Deep listeners will find themselves chanting and swaying as the healing atmospheres and rhythms surround and devour the neuropathways of their bio-sonic feedback devices.”
— Jim Brenholts
“The Shaman’s Heart provides a kind of spacious, soft, inviting container for inner exploration. A kind of gently moving carriage for shamanic journeys into other worlds, and deeper dimensions of this world. Like walking quietly and contemplatively through the forests of mind.”
— Ralph Metzner
Author, The Unfolding Self
“In THE SHAMAN'S HEART, virtuoso percussionist and soundscape sculptor Byron Metcalf takes us on a potent journey into the archetypal depths of shamanic awakening.”
— Frank MacEowen
Author
"It's the way [The Shaman's Heart] all fits together - like one organic breathing entity, enveloping you so completely that this is like taking a literal voyage up the Amazon. Seldom do I endorse an album this thoroughly, but honestly, if you have ever enjoyed ethno-tribal music even to a moderate degree, The Shaman's Heart is, well, indispensable and essential. You have to hear this CD! The Shaman's Heart is a perfect recording. . . it is as close to a magical experience committed to the recording medium as you're likely to hear any time soon. My mind boggles at the idea this was created in a studio, as it almost feels like it emerged newborn from the very heart of the jungle itself. There's little else to say except Wow!"
— Bill Binkelman
WindAndWire.com
THE SHAMAN'S HEART is, as the title certainly implies, a very deep spiritual journey choreographed by Byron Metcalf with assistance from Steve Roach.
The best thing about any CD involving these two ambient icons is that it is easy to like. This set opens with some very subtle Shamanic percussion and evolves into full-fledged soundworlds. Steve’s soundworlds blend fluidly with Byron’s to create “their” soundworld. The disc is a 73-minute soundscape divided into seven movements. Each movement has its own integrity – sonic and spiritual – and each interacts with the others. Deep listeners will find themselves chanting and swaying as the healing atmospheres and rhythms surround and devour the neuropathways of their bio-sonic feedback devices.
That is the real appeal of this disc! Byron and Steve are passionate sound healers and sonic Shamans. The intensity comes from their hearts and goes to the listeners’ hearts. The music is both psychoactive and bioactive. It is possible to listen at low volumes for background and ambient effect. It is best to listen at high volumes for the fullness of the interactive experience!
– Jim Brenholts
In THE SHAMAN'S HEART, virtuoso percussionist and soundscape sculptor Byron Metcalf takes us on a potent journey into the archetypal depths of shamanic awakening. Blending poly-rhythmic percussion and the hot spark of shaman's rattles with rainsticks, didjeridoos, the sound of wind and the grokking of ravens, THE SHAMAN'S HEART will carry the listener into that place of ancestral memory where the Ancient Ones beckon us to remember the crackling fires, deep forests, and ceremonial caverns where the shaman's heart was originally born. Regardless of time, space, culture, and gender, there is only one shaman in many hearts. And the beat goes on.
— Frank MacEowen