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ACOUSTIC LEVITATION
A sonic ritual by Jyoti Mayi
We gather to continue to ask the questions humans have asked since our beginnings. To contemplate the mystery of our being and of the universe and to bring ourselves closer to understanding the true nature and potential of our human form.
This work unfolds at the intersection of Tantric philosophy, experimental music, and archaeo-musicology.
TANTRIC PHILOSOPHY
The ritual structure draws from three foundational elements of Tantra: mantra, the chakra system, and the goddess principle.
Mantra
In Tantric traditions, mantra is vibrational technology. Sound is understood as capable of reorganizing perception and transforming consciousness. Chanting becomes an alchemical process: the individual voice aligning with universal resonance.
Chakras
The chakra system originates within Tantric metaphysics as a subtle map of the body. One classical Tantric approach suggests first drawing energy downward — from crown to root — consolidating and stabilizing it before allowing it to rise as kundalinÄ«. Tonight’s arc follows this descending sequence: crown to root, sky to earth, transcendence to embodiment. Grounding precedes ascent.
The Goddess
Tantra is often described as goddess-centered, yet its deeper principle is dynamic polarity — the union of complementary forces. The feminine is invoked not in isolation, but as part of an indivisible balance. Each mantra tonight honors a goddess form as an expression of this creative equilibrium.
The performance unfolds through seven mantras for seven goddesses and seven chakras.
EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC
Here, experimental music refers to the integration of processed electronics and field recordings alongside acoustic instruments and voice. The electronic elements do not function as accompaniment but as atmospheric architecture — extending the vibrational field. The field recordings correspond symbolically and energetically to the Tantric themes of each section, deepening sensory immersion.
ARCHAEOMUSICOLOGY
The three clay wind instruments performed tonight are replicas I constructed based on archaeological findings from pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas.
In my research, I have encountered instruments that lay buried for millennia and are only now being sounded again. Hearing them feels like finding a message in a bottle — a transmission across time.
One instrument featured tonight is modeled after technology developed between 500 BCE and 500 CE by the Bahía, Jama-Coaque, Guangala, and Tolita cultures of coastal Ecuador. The form depicts a female body containing two internal whistles positioned at the location of the ovaries. It will be sounded during the segment devoted to the second chakra — associated with creativity, fertility, and generative force.
Many ancient cultures understood sound as a portal: a means of cosmological alignment and communion with the unseen. Across thousands of years and continents, the intention remains constant: sound as a bridge between the human and the cosmic.
REMEMBRANCE
I think of this work as an act of remembrance.
Ancient civilizations — whether pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas or early Tantric traditions of India — developed worldviews shaped by centuries of philosophical refinement and that were perhaps more connected to our intrinsic nature as humans than our contemporary cultures.
The scientific claim that humans possess only five senses is a stunning falsehood. Human awareness exceeds the measurements of scientific materialism and its infinite capacity has been largely negated by cultures centered on productivity and quantification.
I am inspired by the Hebrew word Teshuva, the act of return. Not a return to the past, but to an essential knowing beneath experience. What we seek is not learned, but remembered. Tonight, may we listen our way back to that place.
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