As smooth as water, the voice of Danielea Castell will ripple past your ears. Her drum will tap out a heartbeat she feels from the waters of the earth. Her words will dip into the gentle currents like toes easing in from the shore.
Thank You Water is the first album made by the longtime local vocalist. Castell is based in Quesnel where she runs a business she calls Soundspa, which is a combination of facilitation services and healing services. She combines vocalizations and other musical elements with reiki sessions, group sound baths and ceremonial events for the individual, family and community.
A self-described "eco-spiritual artist," she is the founder of the Water Gratitude Project that helps form the Rivers Day activities in the region.
Castell's long association with water - all of which she considers a living being - has led her to make this collection of songs inspired by the lakes and rivers of the area.
"I am a live ceremonial singer so I receive music like this while I am in deep heart communion with rivers and lakes. I meditate beside them and sing using a ceremonial form of chanting I call sound weaving," she said.
Chanting forms some of the basis for Thank You Water, but these are songs in the popular sense. There are lyrics, and she sings them with a strong confidence. Melody moves them forward and rhythm gives them a foundation. It's new-age music, if one had to apply a genre, but it is professionally presented with a constant thread of production quality.
The album was recorded in North Vancouver at Blue Dolphin Studios, owned and operated by recording artist and producer Julie Blue.
"Julie is an accomplished pianist, film composer and programmer with her own living love for water so she was the perfect person to arrange the chants and river messages into the diverse musical forms you hear on the CD," Castell said. "Hooman DePars is a colleague and friend of Julie's and she recommended him for the mixing and mastering. His specialty is vocals and I am thrilled at the overall quality of this recording because I believe the higher the quality - the more honour offered to water, my teachers.
Castell and Blue take care of most instrumentation elements in the mix, with some extra backing vocals provided by singers Jesse Joy and Helen Styles.
"I hope this album will inspire people to express their own gratitude to water and be a starting point for restoring our sacred relationship with water," said Castell. "The other day in the car my roommate was singing along to the title track Thank You Water and I got really excited thinking that this could be accomplished through that song."
Many of the repeated lines of the album's songs are catchy like Thank You Water. The album is easy to listen to as background music, or boost the volume to hear the music's details more clearly and settle back to meditate through the sequence of songs.
"I hope that the teachings that I received from the different bodies of water and that are in the songs are as helpful for other people as they are for me," she said. "For example A Call To Honour & Forgive is a medicine melody that was given to me by Liard Hot Springs. I was having a hard time accepting something that had happened with a good friend but singing this chant over and over helped me accept what happened and forgive her and myself. I hope that this CD inspires people to want to get to know their local bodies of water through quiet meditation and creative interactions."
Castell's ponderings of water went beyond music. Coming soon is a book she's authored entitled Water My Love that also washes in these themes.
Castell has a pair of events coming soon to help launch Thank You Water. The first one is Saturday at 10 a.m. in Prince George.
"Fraser River in Prince George is where my deep bond with water started four years ago. Now that my water CD is done, Fraser is who I want to play it for first," she said.
"Join Helen Styles and myself on the riverbank at Paddlewheel Park for the broadcast to Fraser. Sit. Listen. Witness. All welcome. There are some rocks to sit on, but you might like to bring something to sit on like a piece of cardboard or a yoga mat. Dress for being comfortable outside for an hour."
There will be a short opening ceremony, the playing of the 42-minute CD, then a brief closing ceremony.
A second public appearance by Castell will take place March 3 from 5-7 p.m. All are welcome to drop in at the REAPS building (1950 Gorse Street, near Exploration Place).
For more information, including download links to obtain the album online as of today, visit Castell's website at www.watergratitudeproject.org.
