Ancient Astronauts: The Archeology of Shamanism

History Channel Ancient Astronauts Documentary
Discusses the relationship between ancient art, shamanism and possible theories of consciousness. The relevance of sound and acoustics in caves and tombs is explored. Uses cognitive archeology as a basis for making assumptions about the role of shamanism in cultural development and human consciousness. Very interesting.

An album by Antonio Zepeda who plays with the group Tribu in the sun pyramid in the documentary can be downloaded from HERE.

Not unlike a Techno shaman, this Mexican artist eschews musical cliches in his deliberately elusive music. Using ancient instruments such as the clay whistle, shells, rattles, bamboo and the water drum, Jorge Reyes adds electronic textures to create a mythic pre-Columbian dreamscape. Sounds based on natural elements such as wind and rain enter like foreboding notices of the eternal, underpinning the unnerving percussion. Though mostly instrumental, the odd chant is employed to evoke the indigenous culture of the Americas from a time before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. Much of his music may be classified as Ambient, but Reyes' jazz background shows in the sophisticated compositional structures.

An article by Dr David Keating of Reading University's cybernetics department, The sound of the Neolithic is online as well.