# Stupa, the second part of my latest project, a cinematic, spiritual and ambient suite called Shamanka



## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 3, 2021)

_*Shamanka*_ (the female shaman) is set in the Lake Baikal area of Russia, a very mysterious and spiritual region, full of legends told and re-told by generations of local tribes such as the Buryats.

My cinematic suite goes from island to island on this formidable lake, the largest and deepest in the world, created by drifting tectonic plates, trying to convey the powerful atmosphere and the mystery of these incredible locations.

This second part entitled _*Stupa*_ is named after the type of small Buddhist temple located on Ogoy, the first island we visited. It is an ethereal, spiritual and meditative piece reminiscent of monks' prayers, dedicated to Dakini, the female spirit.




Our first stop was _*Ogoy*_, a small island in the Maloe More strait, harboring this minuscule Buddhist Stupa.




I hope you will enjoy it. Your feedback always means a lot to me! ❤️


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## PeterN (Jun 3, 2021)

Nice idea.

Did you mix in Tibetan horns there (Stupa)? Or are those synth patches? They do sound somewhat Tibetan.

Dakini is a deity also in Tantric Buddhism - you did great capture with music.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 3, 2021)

Thank you for listening and for your nice words! ❤️ I thought of using Tibetan horns (or the similar aphorn) but finally went with some synths. On the other hand I did use some Mongolian frame drums, dreamcatcher bells and also Tibetan bowls for more authenticity.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Jun 4, 2021)

Really nice, Tatiana. I liked the way you used synths to give the sound of some ancient drone instrument and mixed it in with the bells and bowls. I like that kind of world music where the instruments aren't all "real," but give off a feeling that seems authentic even if you can't put your finger on what it is exactly. What synth did you use? Pigments? 

Do you have Tarilonte's NADA? That would work well with your music in this vein. Not that you need it.  Leave it to me to listen to music and encourage somebody to spend money. But I do love NADA a lot. 

Anyway, well done!


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## KarlHeinz (Jun 5, 2021)

Great music and wonderful new information . I have not heard anything before about this wonderful mystical place and would never have imagined a buddhist temple in russia to be honest  .

Maybe cause in this europe-centric view we often dont realize how big russia really is and how many cultures still even after end of the USSR. I just lately realized while looking on a map of siberia simply cause I get to know someone from there. Its just amazing, seems Europe might just fit into Siberia alone in case of surface.

Back to the music: really beautiful and covers lots of mystic and spiritual emotions. Only thing I wonder: if its really that dark like the music (refer to Stupa) sounds (at least for me). As someone mentioned Nada before, this has more the emotion of Eduardo Tarilontes Dark Era. Which might fit to the shamanic tradition. Next thing I learned: in my limited knowledge I would automatically associate shaman with "male".

So another thing learned  . Wonder how a life this shamanic tradition in russia is today.


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## doctoremmet (Jun 5, 2021)

TigerTheFrog said:


> Leave it to me to listen to music and encourage somebody to spend money.


Lol


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## doctoremmet (Jun 5, 2021)

KarlHeinz said:


> Its just amazing, seems Europe might just fit into Siberia alone in case of surface.


Oh, but it can. Europe is TINY. I did one of those DNA ancestry tests a couple of years ago, you know... to make absolutely sure my DNA is stored somewhere by a totally trustworthy company that’ll never have their data stolen and would never sell it to the highest bidding health insurer. Anyway. I found out I’m 1% Yakut. I’m like “interesting, never heard of it. must be one of those little Russian republics”.

Yep. The Republic of Sakha / Yakutia. The entirety of the EU easily fits in its area.

Cool western-european schooling systems huh? Not euro-centric at ALL. Only thing I remember is our music teacher playing us Sting in 1985. “I hope the Russians love their children too”. Fantastic, I guess now I know all there is to know about those people, i.e. they’re bad and they have a bomb. Now, let us all talk about the heroic stories of our Dutch ancestors inventing slavery*) and the first publicly traded company that was invented in order to turn that trade into the world’s first corporate multinational. Hurrah!



*)okay - we may not have invented it haha


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 5, 2021)

> Next thing I learned: in my limited knowledge I would automatically associate shaman with "male".


Actually, since the paleolithic era, female shamans or shamanesses (in Russian we say _shamanki_ (plural) or _shamanka_ (singular)), were considered more powerful (?) than their male vis-à-vis.





I found https://ericwedwards.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/female-shamans-and-medicine-women/ (this interesting article) if you're interested.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 5, 2021)

@TigerTheFrog & @KarlHeinz : I will have to look into Tarilonte's NADA and Dark Era. I checked his products a while back but now you both have picked my curiosity again!


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## sostenuto (Jun 5, 2021)

Magical for me. World's oldest, deepest lake ? Your compositions fit this scene so well ..... first two-thirds of Shamanka - Stupa, in particular. Quite impressive and intriguing. 

Regards


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## Reid Rosefelt (Jun 5, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> @TigerTheFrog & @KarlHeinz : I will have to look into Tarilonte's NADA and Dark Era. I checked his products a while back but now you both have picked my curiosity again!


Unlike all of his other libraries that I own, it is not composed of "real" instruments, but New Age versions of his own creation. If he had wanted to, for example, record a Hulusi for an ERA library, he would have done it differently. That's what he told me via DM on this very forum. Tarilonte's instruments have pads and other things mixed in and mucho reverb. You can of course dial them down to suit your taste. 

He recently did an update that includes one of your favorite instruments, a Theremin. But a New Age Theremin. As you are IMHO the chief Thereminator on VI-Control, I think you would find it of special interest. 

There's a ton more in this very deep library, including a massive percussion section, vocals, and pads. 

I think DARK is the only ERA I don't have. I'm constantly nagging for a Silk Road ERA.


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## KarlHeinz (Jun 5, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> Actually, since the paleolithic era, female shamans or shamanesses (in Russian we say _shamanki_ (plural) or _shamanka_ (singular)), were considered more powerful (?) than their male vis-à-vis.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks a lot for the article, thats really interesting and detailed info . And kind of a little sad how much has been lost in history (or to speak for my country germany: simply been killed by upcoming christian church.........).


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 5, 2021)

> He recently did an update that includes one of your favorite instruments, a Theremin. But a New Age Theremin. As you are IMHO the chief Thereminator on VI-Control, I think you would find it of special interest.


 The Thereminator!!  Yes, I'm a product of Russian _and_ American cultures now  
Thank you for that Reid!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 5, 2021)

KarlHeinz said:


> Thanks a lot for the article, thats really interesting and detailed info . And kind of a little sad how much has been lost in history (or to speak for my country germany: simply been killed by upcoming christian church.........).


Karl, I'm currently writing something I will post soon exactly in relation to the points you bring up! Thank you for providing me a segue into it.


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## antret (Jun 5, 2021)

Hello!

Like I mentioned earlier, I really enjoy this more ambient side quite a bit.  Ogoy is may fave at the moment. Really enjoy the 'clicky/glitchy' sound design elements in the beginning. 

I think some of the more physical modelled type instruments would work well in these (I may have missed where you mentioned what you used).... I'm thinking along the lines of Plasmonic, Kaivo even Resonans for Reason? You can get those real, organic yet synthetic type sounds. 

This is totally the type of mood I have been in, so thanks for sharing!


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## doctoremmet (Jun 5, 2021)

Plasmonic and Chromaphone 3 indeed strike me as perfect instruments for Tatiana.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 5, 2021)

Guys, please stop suggesting synths I should use!  My head is exploding already!!  
But thanks anyway... Of course I will check them all out...I'm addicted...


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 5, 2021)

@KarlHeinz, here's the post I mentioned before:

It is the dream, of course, of any composer to have their music make people feel but it is especially gratifying to me when it also makes people think and discuss. I am very happy that my humble little pieces about _shamanki_ and the Lake Baikal area tribes generate renewed interest in my country of origin, Russia.

Russia today, and USSR even more in the past, is a huge country, actually still the largest in the world, with many climates, many cultures, many traditions, many mentalities and many languages. It is as far away as you can imagine from the image usually depicted in Western media of some kind of monolithic entity full of robots living under the dictatorship of a totalitarian Orwellian government _à la 1984! _

It might be true that during USSR times the government was indeed completely controlling the country (for good or bad) without the population having much to say about it and not being involved in their day to day decisions. But, without entering into politics, I would argue that, as I see it now from my vantage point living in Canada, this is not much different from many other Western countries today  

In the USSR the population was also never as servile as proposed in popular media here. And Russians are not uneducated peasants as sometimes portrayed. Literacy was already at 99.8% almost 40 years ago! I could tell you what was the main use of _Pravda,_ the official newspaper, in those days, but it would get me banned from this forum by Mike for scatological profanity 

In Russia today there are about 100 languages, spoken by hundreds of ethnic groups, over huge areas with completely different climates, from totally polar to areas like my native Crimea which enjoys a climate similar to Nice and the rest of the Côte d'Azur, with palm trees, wineries and everything 

Even Siberia has many climates. It is huge by itself (13m sq km), even larger than all of Europe (10m sq km), and its main city, Novosibirsk, a super high-tech scientific city, averages 20-25°C in the summer and people swim in Lake Baikal which has some of the purest water in the world.

If you visit the eastern side of Russia today you will not be able to distinguish the people there from any other European country, _except_ that the women are more beautiful of course  but on the other hand, if you go to the eastern end of Russia, people will look to you like Asians, and they are, up to a point. Don't forget that Russia is both in Europe and in Asia which makes it the ultimate Eurasian country (even in Orwell's _1984!_).

But don't be ashamed for not having known all these facts! It is, as someone already mentioned and as I humbly think myself, the result of the European, and also of the American, education systems for being too centered on their own history and culture. Of course even in Russia, because of the large distances, most people have never visited many of the areas outside their own and some of them seem as exotic to Russians as they might seem to you.

A huge thank you to everyone for listening to my music and taking an interest in its origin and cultural background.

I love you all !!! Tatiana ❤️


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## LauraC (Jun 5, 2021)

Oh, Tatiana, I love it. Having spent some time in Buddhist monasteries, I’m immediately drawn in by your narratives. Like others, my understanding of the diversity of Russia is sorely lacking. Thank you for the education, and your beautiful creations.


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## Technostica (Jun 5, 2021)

Lovely music and I look forward to hearing much more hopefully.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 5, 2021)

Technostica said:


> Lovely music and I look forward to hearing much more hopefully.


You will as _Shamanka _has another movement (another island to visit) coming soon... Stay tuned and thank you for listening!!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 5, 2021)

LauraC said:


> Oh, Tatiana, I love it. Having spent some time in Buddhist monasteries, I’m immediately drawn in by your narratives. Like others, my understanding of the diversity of Russia is sorely lacking. Thank you for the education, and your beautiful creations.


Thank you so much Laura! Wow, you have spent some time in Buddhist monasteries!! That's quite unusual and so interesting!! I hope to hear more about it one day. And thank you for your nice comments and your interest!


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## Technostica (Jun 5, 2021)

At first the deep droning sound in Stupa made me think it was a low guttural chanting voice. 
So many delightful and sometimes delicate tones in the piece as well as sturdier elements.
That mix is also present in my own use of sound in shamanic meditations. 
That can range between gong tones that fade to below the threshold of hearing and gentle metal and crystal bowl tones, to the fully immerse sound of 3 large gongs filling a room, a 22 inch frame drum laying down a deep groove and the human voice spontaneously shifting into overtone chanting. 
There can be such a wide range of dynamics and textures that emerge from a few simple tools.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 5, 2021)

> At first the deep droning sound in Stupa made me think it was a low guttural chanting voice.


You are very perceptive @Technostica. Indeed my low drone sounds refer to Mongolian (but also Inuit) _long singing_ a.k.a. _throat singing_, a centuries-old tradition of descriptive music using very specific and unique voice techniques.

As you noted it contrasts with lighter, ambient sounds that add atmosphere.


> There can be such a wide range of dynamics and textures that emerge from a few simple tools.


Indeed!


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## sostenuto (Jun 5, 2021)

Somehow I was struck and intrigued to hear a range of higher-toned sounds, throughout the main section of Stupa, almost conjuring ancient, wild dog-like creatures, barking /howling /tormenting, and such a background to these ancient environs. So creatively crafted, salient content.


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## Technostica (Jun 5, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> You are very perceptive @Technostica. Indeed my low drone sounds refer to Mongolian (but also Inuit) _long singing_ a.k.a. _throat singing_, a centuries-old tradition of descriptive music using very specific and unique voice techniques.


It reminded me of the low chanting of Buddhist monks from certain traditions. 
I imagine it is very hard to capture the complexity of throat singing with a Synthesizer. 
The pre Buddhist Dur Bön tradition of Tibet was a shamanic one. 
No doubt there are some crossovers between these traditions. 
The throat singing is quite distinctive if I recall correctly. 
It was a long time ago.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 5, 2021)

> I imagine it is very hard to capture the complexity of throat singing with a Synthesizer.


You're right. Actually that's why I could not do it and could only, at best, suggest it and let the listener's imagination do the rest.


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## kgdrum (Jun 5, 2021)

@Tatiana Gordeeva 
Well you know I like your work but this? *WOW*! This is stunning,beautiful and somewhat haunting………….

Congratulations! 
I think I’m going to address you as Shamanka Tatiana from now on………..


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## Gerald (Jun 6, 2021)

Excellent. Really great work Tatiana, Thanks for the journey!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 6, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> Well you know I like your work but this? *WOW*! This is stunning,beautiful and somewhat haunting………….Congratulations
> I think I’m going to address you as Shamanka Tatiana from now on………..


Thank you so much @kgdrum ! I love your use of the word "haunting" as it is exactly the way I would also describe my upcoming piece (not part of this suite) called "E.B." (temp name)  Stay tuned... Shamanka Tatiana


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Jun 6, 2021)

Gerald said:


> Excellent. Really great work Tatiana, Thanks for the journey!


Thank you Gérald! You know it means a lot to me coming from you!!
People, you should go to Gérald's SoundCloud page and discover there examples of what we all aspire to do: great impeccable original music!


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