Voice & Nature Retreat
with Api Ascaso
June 12 - 16, 2024
- Spanish Pyrenees -
3 full days and 2 half days immersed in the healing vibrations of sound and nature.
With a deep focus on the use of your voice and your natural expressions as self-knowledge and healing tools, in deep relationship with the elements.
Music will be the golden thread that unites it all
The retreat space is weaved in between majestic mountains, there will be a good balance of activities to guide this journey that the voice ignites. We’ll dive in to find your true essence and recognise your unique vibration from where we express ourselves, manifest and contribute to this mantle of life. Music will be the golden thread that unites it all and you’ll have the opportunity to explore and play different instruments if you wish.
The forces of nature are not only an inspiration but the teachers and guides that help us remembering who we are. We will have plenty of opportunities to connect to the elements, feel the presence of the mountains, walk into her cradle, pray to the fire, offer to the land and listen to the whispers of the forests and rivers.
Yes, it is about you and your relationship with nature, but the community plays a huge role. We would like you to be open to socialise and nurture yourself from the interactions with like-minded people. Together we rise, we co-create and we remind each other of the beauty, as well as the challenges that life has to offer for us to grow from.
Some of the offering that will be held:
- Welcoming fire ceremony: intention setting, clearing and calling the warm light within.
- Early Morning meditation, breathwork, movement and QiGong practice, welcoming the wisdom of Chinese Medicine and the elements to balance our energy and re-stablish health.
- 5 Voice Activation sessions, each session dedicated to one element. In these sessions you will learn how to look after your voice, somatic voice / the connection with your body, the basics of channelling energy with your voice, voice projection, improvisation, in-spot composition and, creativity and flow.
- Learn how to incorporate sound in your daily practice. We’ll share some of the Chinese healing sounds, chakra sound system and basics of Nada Yoga.
- Circle singing: you’ll be guided into spontaneous group singing where the pieces are created on the spot and any unexpected sound scape can be created. Creativity and fun in the shape of music!
- One day easy hike led by a local guide and expert on nature, which will include visits to caves, natural pools, rivers and forests of this ancient land. We will run voice and sound sessions in these spaces influenced by the predominant element. We will also create altars and offerings to the land.
- 3 nights where you can immerse yourself into:
1. Cacao ceremony. Heart centred celebration connecting to the joy of being alive. The drums will lead the way of the heart beat, the one heart beat.
2. Melt into your subconscious land through blue lotus whispers, sound and gong bath, going to sleep after to explore lucid dreaming.
3. Final night music jam around the fire.
Learn +20 songs
- You will learn some songs from different parts of the world during the retreat. But there’s potential for learning more than 20 songs if we all contribute to it. I will kindly ask that you commit to bring a song that you know and may be willing to share with all on the last night music jam. It’s an invitation, why not? Together we’ll co-create a song book helping to increase our repertoire.
- Individual support is available before, during and after the retreat, if and when needed.
Facilitator
Api Ascaso
Api Ascaso is an explorative and vibrant soul whose musical abilities reunite together to create expressive, eclectic and soulful music. Her fascination for nature, cultures, art, ancient wisdom, music, rhythm and a few plants continues influencing her compositions and her genuine improvisation skills, using the several instruments that she plays with delicacy. Api´s musical exploration flows into the mysteries of self-discovery and healing, with an intimate connection with the Earth that comes across in her touching raw and incredibly versatile voice.
Playing music from the age of 4 and receiving full classical training as a pianist, Api’s musical ongoing journey has encountered many genres such as Spanish folk, jazz harmonies, West African drumming, South African vibrations, Middle Eastern percussion, Hindustani raags, shamanic influences and meditative modes. She has been involved in several fusion projects which have given her the opportunity to play with several world musicians and perform internationally.
Api continues her studies as energy healer, shamanic practitioner and holistic voice therapist. Api offers regular voice activation workshops called “Music Under One Moon”, both in person and online, with the intention of bringing the community together around the power of music and empowering people through the use of the most healing musical instrument available on Earth, the voice.
Additionally, Api is a highly specialist Occupational Therapist for children. She has worked for 2 decades with babies, children and young adults with a big range of needs. Working with vulnerable people and communities as well as running thousands of hours of specialists interventions and coaching families, Api has developed a unique sensitivity to deliver client-centred interventions, based on the needs that arise in the present moment and space.
Mother of 2 and eternal nature lover, as well as participating and initiating many music collaborations, including the mystical “Terra Cósmica” with Rubén Te Yon´ton, Api continues to compose and create her solo music, with the forces of the elements speaking through her music, unfolding social and environmental issues, as well as offering a sound landscape where you will be inspired to breathe, connect and celebrate life as well as the unavoidable processes of death.
Take a deep breath and listen to her music here (available in most platforms as Api Ascaso).
