Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash

Africa, 200,000 years ago. The sun is setting, and the members of the tribe prepare to sleep. They gather around the fire and wait expectantly. Mothers hold babies, older children chatter excitedly, and the elders are given seats nearest the warming flames, as befits their honored status. Finally, the awaited ones arrive. They open their mouths, and out pour the magical notes, the divine words. Their songs recount the events of the day, and they are filled with hope and love, fear and sadness, joy and sorrow. Whatever the day brought, good or evil, is released again into the common air, and the tribe, as one, breathes it in. Many begin to clap. Some stamp their feet. Others start to sing along.

When it is over, the people retire for the night, comforted once again by the knowledge, the experience, the proof that they are indeed all one tribe, and strengthened once again by the certainty that they are all one body, and all one soul. Tomorrow waits, and they are ready. 

What you hear on this website is a new genre of music that I call Voice and Drum. It is my way of paying homage to the ancient origins of the original music, which is known as song. Long before oboes and electric guitars, people sang and clapped their hands. Melody, lyric, and rhythm: this is radical music, in the literal sense of the word; it is stripped down to its roots. May it serve to remind some long-forgotten part of us that we are indeed all one body, and all one soul.
– Tim Skehan, 2021 

You Took the Summer With You

Listen to more of Tim’s music on his website, polysongs.com.