Explosions of fire. Thrumming, primal rhythm. Dancers swirling
in whirls of diaphanous white. Machetes spinning and clashing.
Ancient instruments and futuristic technologies. Mythic archetypes – skeletons,
deer, wondrous female warriors – coming to life. Seduction.
Danger.
Freedom.
And we’re only talking about the first minute or so after
Kan’Nal takes the stage.
These performances surpass what people
expect. You can’t
exactly call them concerts; instead Kan’Nal has created
its own ”Shamanic Rock” – personal ritual that
stirs the emotions – fear, desire, ecstasy – in a
way that makes this group much more than just a band. For that
matter, you can’t even call Kan’Nal a “band.” These
seven individuals have drawn together into something that goes
beyond family; they’re more like a tribe, united by ties
more binding than birth.
Audiences have sensed this. In the beginning
they drew the curious; these became converts, and the word
spread. When Kan’Nal
would return to the same venue, the crowd would typically have
doubled. A few months later the attendance would have tripled.
The music of Kan’Nal alone – documented on their
debut CD, Dreamwalker – conveys the power of these spectacles.
What’s perhaps strangest of all is that these visions,
these sounds of color and shadow and light, trace back to a place
of complete darkness, deep in the Guatemalan jungle, where the
idea of Kan’Nal erupted in one abrupt, life-changing flash.
Fate had brought Tzol here, far from his hometown of Austin,
Texas. He’d
been singing with bands there since he was fifteen years old, but after five
years of doing standard gigs he felt the call to seek greater meaning than
he’d found in local clubs. His intstinct drew him to explore Mexico and
Central America where adventure, ancient culture and mysticism became the focus.
On one particular night, deep in the jungles of chiapas, he discovered the
vision of Kan'Nal.
Over the next few years each piece of
the puzzle that is Kan’Nal
found its place. First, in the village of San Marcos, near the
sacred Lake Atitlan, Tzol met Tierro, a fellow wanderer drawn
also by forces not easy to understand. They began writing songs
and performing together, though even at this point a sense of
exploration channeled through their music.
“We played mainly in courtyards behind people’s homes,” Tzol
remembers, “which we’d decorate before each show with flowers that
we’d picked and anything else we could find to create these extravagant
displays. And while we were playing we’d have people walking around and
feeding everyone with juice or grapes or wine, and we’d burn copal or sage
or incense.
“It was never about just standing
onstage. We wanted to go beyond that, to stimulate all the
senses and raise them to some other level.”
After a short visit to Tierro’s home in Toronto, where
they recorded the first Kan’Nal CD as a duo, the two returned
to Guatemala. At their very first show there another traveler,
Rodolfo Escobar, met the two and they invited him to play along
on bass. He’d come down from San Antonio, Texas, where
he’d established himself as a guitarron virtuoso. With
his addition Kan’Nal moved decisively into a stronger groove
feel … and with Teresita, his traveling partner and musical
associate, they gained a visual, even mystical, dimension.
THE BAND
Tzol: Vocals, lyrics, and rhythm guitar.
Tzol's voice ranges from angelic to primal, powerfully expressing the vision
and inspiration he finds from a deep connection to the earth and nature.
Tierro: Lead guitars.
Blending spanish gypsy, native trance and psychedelic leads, Tierro is a world
traveler and an artist of sound.
Rodolfo: Bass.
Captain of Fun and king of the groove. If you're not dancing, then Rodo's going
to have to use his super powers on you.
Teresita: Performance.
Part gypsy dancer and part fire dragon, Teresita lights the stage with her
ceremony and performance art.
Gilly: Drums and percussion.
Somewhere in-between Animal and Zakir Hussain, Gilly drives an intense tribal
beat embellished with intricate middle eastern flavor.
Aaron: Didgeridoo, percussion, and samples.
Offers deep breath, meditation, and vibration carried in the hypnotic rhythm
of the didge.
Akayate: Performance and design.
A seeker of balance in both movement and design, Akayate is subtle and precise,
a ninja of dance theater.
Boris: Video Projection
Aka: Videolicious.Transforming the stage into a wild, primordial, swirling
channel, Boris dances with video, projecting psychedelic imagery to the rhythym
of the music.
Living together near the lake, all four drew inspiration from the beauties
and hardships that surrounded them. “You could spend all day lying in
the sun, swimming, and eating fresh fruit that’s just falling from the
trees,” Teresita says. “At the same time there’s no running
water or electricity, so you have to make a fire every time you want to cook.
You pull the beans from the ground to make your salads. It takes all day to
prepare your meal. To get anywhere you have to follow paths through huge mountains,
so your body is challenged but it also comes to life and becomes strong.”
One by one the group encountered the
others destined to join their community. Aaron Jerad, another
passenger on “La
Ruta Maya,” came into the picture while they were visiting
the Mayan ruins in Tulum; his percussion wizardry and mastery
of the didgeridoo drew Kan’Nal into rhythm’s embrace
and broadened their cultural range. Leaving Mexico for Texas,
they met Gilly Gonzalez, a longtime musical partner to Teresita
and Rodolfo, whose ferocious drumming had made him a figure of
legend in and around San Antonio. One rehearsal was enough to
usher him into Kan’Nal and off on a series of appearances
throughout the Southwest and along the West Coast.
Joined by Akayate, whose gift for costume
design enhanced the visual and storytelling elements that Teresita
had introduced, Kan’Nal began to draw notice beyond its
home bases of Guatemala, Mexico, Texas, and eventually Boulder,
Colorado. With multimedia expert Boris Karpman recruited to
reflect their intensities through the mirror of live video
mixing, they achieved an unprecedented synthesis of prehistoric
and visionary elements in writing and performance.
The fire ... the dances … the story-songs that proclaim “we
don’t need your lost religions to tell us who we are … bring
down the fire and walk as one” (“Gypsy”), or
demand that the fates “shake my bones ‘til they shatter/shake
my soul like a rattle” (“Desert Flower”), or
reflect on the passing years as “the enemy… I just
hope there’s time for everything” (“Time”) …
These are the summons that have flown
over the Nevada desert at Burning Man, or sounded from the
Rockies at Dreamtime in Colorado, or echoed through the High
Sierra Festival above the Feather River Canyon in California,
drawing thousands of listeners now to join with Kan’Nal
on its journey.
"I see us going even further," Tzol insists, "to
Europe, Australia, Asia – anywhere and everywhere -- because
we're all travelers at heart. And to be able to do this as part
of a project like Kan'Nal is a great privilege. I really believe
we are just at the beginning."
For now, though, the mission is clear... One
people, one color, one earth. This is Kan'Nal.
