Neptune's Garden Album Release Soundbath at the OMSI Planetarium

We are excited to welcome you to the album release of Naike and Yaara’s first joint work “Neptune’s Garden” at the OMSI Planetarium on April 8th at 7:30pm. Join us on this 1 hr journey to the inner and outer sonic realms of Neptune’s dreamy domains while also traveling into the deep space cosmos projected above us.

Doors open at 7:30 and close at 7:55pm (please arrive on time)

Soundbath begins promptly at 8pm

An electronic Sound Bath is an ambient musical event, where you come to relax and be “bathed” by calming, harmonizing musical vibrations. This “bathing” effect is achieved as Yaara and Naike play a mixture of traditional healing instruments such as singing bowls, gongs, harmonic chimes and interval tuning forks, as well as binaural beats, field recorded nature sounds and electronic synthesizers. Yaara creates complex vocal and acoustic landscapes using a variety of traditional instrumentation from her Colombian and Jewish heritage. Naike also draws from the sounds of their upbringing in Tanzania and the diasporas contained within it by weaving together the Indian classical flute with percussion, kalimbas, and healing artifacts gathered from their travels and studies in sound healing. These natural harmonic frequencies and sounds help relax the nervous system and allow our consciousness to experience expanded states of cognition.

The Backstory

In April 2022, as Jupiter and Neptune shared the night sky with the Moon, Mars and Venus in the otherworldly sign of Pisces, two sound loving friends retreated to a beautiful oceanside home in Cannon Beach, Oregon to create and record a sound journey. They gathered a crew of Pisces prone friends to support them and spent 4 ecstatic days delving fully into their creative sound realms.

The omnipresent drone of the ocean, the crackle of a fireplace, early morning mist, the deluge of coastal rain pierced every so often by clear skies and a bird call, fiery orange sunsets, neon sea anemones and other tide pool beings populated their days and colored the sounds that you hear in this sonic journey. As such, the album itself is a reflection of a day spent wandering along the PNW coastline, submerged in thought and memories of places and people. Impulses rise and fall with no apparent destination. In this meandering trance we are given space to release, observe and empty the vessel of our minds.

The work is titled Neptune’s Garden in honor of that gaseous giant in our solar system, whose ancient vibrations help us dissolves definitions, shapeshift and defy understanding, who draws us into reverie and stokes our imagination to embrace the loftiest of ideas, who skirts practicality in pursuit of spirit’s call. As Neptune leaves its zodiacal domicile of Pisces where it has resided since 2011, we offer gratitude and dedication for the healing waters it has poured out. Gratitude also to our friends and partners for their endless support!

NAIKE SWAI is an Oakland based DJ, acupuncturist and astrologer of Tanzanian and German heritage. Brought up with a guitar and ngoma (traditional Tanzanian drum), they expanded their musical studies in New Delhi, India by learning the Indian Bamboo flute, also known as Bansuri with Indian classical Maestro Harsh Wardhan. Naike is a member of the Hawaiian Sound School and trained in a variety of sound healing modalities, which include Biosonics. In Naike's artistic practice, they utilize time-suspending harmonic ratios, tuning forks, traditional kalimbas, analogue electronics and other natural instruments to bring harmonizing vibrations into the body to balance the parasympathetic nervous system and facilitate somatic healing.

YAARA PERCZEK is a multidisciplinary performer and sound artist of Jewish Latinx heritage based in Portland. She utilizes looping technology to create luscious vocal-based live transmissions. Yaara trained in movement based expressive arts therapy and her work is centered in somatic reconnection. In addition to her solo work, she collaboratively creates work for dance, film, and other performance art projects. She performs under the name Yaara Valey.

Naike and Yaara started performing soundbaths in 2018 at Yoga studios around Portland. The pandemic drew these events into the open air, to the Japanese Gardens, under tree canopies in Portland’s meandering parks, and even to Pickathon’s Healing Sanctuary in the Woods. They strive to create spaces where queer BIPOC can rest and relax. It has always been their dream to perform a soundbath at the OMSI planetarium and they couldn’t be more excited for this event. Thank you for sharing this moment with us!

The recording of this album and this event are made possible by the Regional Arts and Culture Commission (RACC) MAKE LEARN BUILD grant. Thank you for all your support!

Host or Publisher Naike Swai