I edited these these field recordings made by the anthropologist Michael Taussig in the 1970s and '80s in the Colombian Putumayo region of the Amazon.I  also contributed some liner notes. The recordings capture the Putumayo shaman Santiago Mutumbajoy's healing sessions, during which his subjects experienced powerful visions after ingesting the hallucinogenic drug yage. The everyday ambient sounds of the jungle are much in evidence, as its teeming life noisily continues around the participants. These include Taussig himself, who, with varying degrees of success, attempts to recount the drug's effects while still under its influence. These recordings offer a fascinating window into the opaque world of shamanism.

"Mutumbajoy accompanies his low-pitched, buzzing voice with a shaker, its incessant swish seeming to sweep his patient through the door of perception."

--The Wire

"Backed up only by a percussive rattle, the voice wobbles and shakes, tonalities dripping from it like rainwater, making the music as beautiful and fully alive as a mere recording gets."

--Global Rhythm