Serpentine's Album Release and Ireland Tour

Who we are

Serpentine is a vocal ensemble based out of Bulbancha (New Orleans), Louisiana, formed in 2017. Through sound installation and the creation of activated space, Serpentine collaborates with spirit and community to facilitate places for transformation and healing.

We are working towards two goals this year:

*releasing a studio album

*embarking on a second tour of Ireland.

Your contributions will help bring these goals to fruition.

Over the past seven years, Serpentine has created, practiced, and performed many original songs foster healing, release trauma and grief, and call in joy, pleasure, and enchantment.

These songs are distinctive in their intricacy of composition, the kaleidoscopic nature of their harmonies, and the invocations of their lyrics. Our voices blend and weave together to create each song's unique texture.

Our goal is to release an album that will document and hold our songs with fidelity.

Recording a choir brings a specific set of challenges and costs, and we are asking for help to fund this project and make rich recordings of our songs making them accessible to wider communities.

Why do we want to return to Ireland?

Years ago, the idea of visiting overseas locations where Serpentine members had ancestral ties was born. The intention was to build connections to the land and heal ancestral trauma through singing, ritual, and the temporary construction of altars. Many factors led us to Ireland, including its rich mysticism and local creators dedicated to similar goals.

Our tour in June 2023 focused on the energy of Ireland's ancient oak forests, which were cleared for farming and industry. We dedicated our performances to the memory and re-calling of these oak forests, creating immersive spaces for human and more-than-human kin, and forging collaborations in ritual performance with all kinds of artists, climate activists, choirs, sacred sites, stone circles, owls, the sea, the Cailleach, and oak groves.

In July 2024, Serpentine returns to Ireland. It is our intention to water the seeds we planted last year by deepening our creative and spiritual relationships with the land and the people we met. We also hope to put down some roots for larger projects and collaborations in the future.

We ask for support to help make this possible. Funding will go toward transportation and lodging, which can be challenging for an ensemble of seven people.

Goal

* Funding an album that holds the full magic of our songs, the intricate blending of our voices, and the spells worked by the lyrics, released by Summer 2024. We want to record, mix, and master an album that truly does service to the songs, and all of those things are an investment.

*Ireland Tour Support to help cover basic lodging and transportation during our second tour of Ireland. This will enable us to deepen our relationships with the land, the artists, and the activists we met last year and put down roots for larger projects in the future.

It means a lot to each and every one of us to have you read our story. We have deep gratitude to everyone who has supported us over the past seven years, and thank you for considering helping us reach our goal.

As a token of our appreciation, anyone who makes a contribution of 30 dollars and above will receive an album code of our upcoming album download code. With a special thank you.

Note on Privilege

We acknowledge the significant harm and trauma that many are experiencing. We strongly believe that it is vital to support those in need during these challenging times. Therefore, we request that you consider making a donation to our cause, AS WELL AS to other organizations that provide critical aid to those who require it the most. We believe there is enough to go around. We also share/donate personally and through benefit performances. Furthermore, we believe in the value of art and song as critical forms of cultural expression and preservation, of remembrance and story, of grief and sorrow.

Many of us are artists working and creating within the largely unsupportive capitalist system. It is a challenge to put together funds for bigger projects, so that is why we are asking the greater community. Every little bit helps us to continue our creative and spiritual endeavors. It is part of the fabric of well-being, of work on this earth, of connection and wildness and mystery, and we hope this resonates far and deep.