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GIHON

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My collaboration with Sadam Seguya and EXITONLi,
Released courtesy of Shango Records on its upcoming "Night Of The Misty Moon" VA

Available now on Beatport and all other platforms!

🎶🔥❤🦁❤🔥🎶

This song is composed, produced, arranged, and performed on several instruments by me (Desert Raven).  Also contributing to sung vocals, various percussion, and woodwind is my Ugandan friend, Sadam Seguya.  Performing hip hop-style lyricism and vocals is my South African friend, EXITONLi.

This song is told in the form of oral traditions, legends, mythology of East Africa, Central Africa, South Africa, and the Bible. 

It follows the course of the Gihon River, the mythical river in the Bible attributed to flowing from the Garden of Eden south into Africa (Ethiopia).  It follows life back to the beginning.  Innocence, joy, freedom, peace of a boy, shielded from the struggles that his family endured, where life was close to God, to the ancestors, and the spirit of the people was still in the boy.  
Next, the river and time flow into darker waters and places: the troubles, chaos, pain, suffering, and death experienced in the young man's life, leaving home and surviving the streets and the cruel world in general.  The young man, in trying to save his life, loses his soul, loses his connection to the ancestors, loses his purpose, loses his God-given nobility, dignity, identity, heart, purpose, love, freedom, and soul...The world's evil has separated the young man from all whom he truly is and should be.

However, all is not lost.  The river still flows on in time and space, into the high mountains, into the clouds, into the cosmos, into the heavens, where the spirits of the ancestors and God live.  In a miraculous moment, full of deliverance and empowerment, the holy and mighty spirit roar of the lion within awakens the man, who finds his eternally gifted life, identity, purpose, heart, sould, strength, love, peace, wisdom, freedom, and family.  The boy is now truly a man.  He is now a noble warrior chief, full of grace and miracles and humility, lovingly leading his people to life, love, peace, and freedom after winning the great war for souls and identity.  The chief is the greatest of kings, as his path has united more firmly than ever with the line and the roots of his ancestors.  The river started on earth, in the heart of a boy, but it flowed into the heavens and carried him through manhood into a glorious eternity with his people.
Gihon is life.  Gihon is the eternal river that unites us with the line of our people, past, present, and future.

The river started on earth, in the heart of a boy, but it flowed into the heavens and carried him through manhood into a glorious eternity with his people.

Gihon is life.  Gihon is the eternal river that unites us with the line of our people, past, present, and future.

GIHON

OFFICAL PRESS RELEASE - COMPILATION STORY

SHANGO RECORDS

"NIGHT OF THE MISTY MOON" - Compilation

Born in the dark streets of Cairo, grown to the unforgettable forests of Santa Esmeralda, spending its teen years in Bombay and Tangier markets, mature into the deep spacey Jungle of Ghana we proudly present you a new label from the land of the pyramids: SHANGO RECORDS invites you to an unheard world music psychedelic trip: like through a colorful kaleidoscope we will melt down Indian and Pakistani Vibes, Arab-Tek and Oriental groovy vibes, Afro-Beat rhythms n' pieces, Cumbia Tropicana flavors and cosmic Ghetto-Latin vibes into forbidden sounds of frenzied electronic dancefloor rituals. Outside traditional paths these driving grooves and polyphonic structures take the adventure seeking dancer to Dionysian highs and places never been before.

Far away from here, following the Jade River, there was once a black mountain that cut into the sky like a jagged piece of rough metal. The villagers called it Fruitless Mountain because nothing grew on it and birds and animals did not rest there. Crowded in the corner of where Fruitless Mountain and the Jade River met was a village that was a shade of faded brown. This was because the land around the village was hard and poor. To coax rice out of the stubborn land, the fields had to be flooded with water. The villagers had to tramp in the mud, bending and stooping and planting day after day. Working in the mud so much made it spread everywhere and the hot sun dried it onto their clothes and hair and homes. Over time, everything in the village had become the dull color of dried mud and everyday was like night. A night of mystery, passion and a strange silver misty Moon up in the black skies.This is the new Shango Records compilation entitled “Night Of The Misty Moon”. Thirteen beautiful tracks to fall in love with. These tracks will seduce you with beauty and destroy you with venom. Take a deep breath, feel the power, strength and raw beauty of these sirens and enjoy the revenge of the flowers. 

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