Recorded in the Oracle Chamber in the Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni, Malta. A 6000 year old Goddess temple made for sound.

ReTurning is an extraordinary follow up to Jennifer Berezan's classic album She Carries Me. Evoking the lineage of ancient singing Priestesses,
Jennifer weaves together a rich musical tapestry. A unique and beautiful blend of some of the world's most profound sacred musical traditions.

With Special Guests: Linda Tillery, Sharon Burch, Chris Webster, Rick Lazar (from Loreena Mckennit Band) and others

In January, 1999 Jennifer Berezan and a group of musicians traveled to Malta to to record music in one on the world's most ancient and important sacred sites, the Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni. The Hypogeum is a three story underground chamber beautifully carved from stone before the age of metal over 6000 years ago (1000 years before the great Pyramids in Egypt and the stone works of Stonehenge in England).

The early Neolithic peoples of Malta built over thirty megalithic temples on their tiny island to honor and celebrate the Mother Goddess and her sacred cyclical mysteries of birth, death and regeneration. These islands were probably a pilgrimage center for peoples all over the ancient world.

The Hypogeum was an underground ritual center where people celebrated the birth of children, honored the ancestors, came for visions and healings and paid homage to the dead and celebrated their rebirth. One of the most extraordinary aspects of the Hypogeum is the existence of an oracle chamber, created with an advanced understanding of acoustics. It is clear that these ancient people recognized the power of sound and music to heal, create altered states of consciousness, deliver prophetic information and fuel ecstatic ritual.

It is in this room that Jennifer and friends made their digital recording of vocal chants and improvisations. Like Paul Horn's recordings in the Taj Majal and choral pieces from the great cathedrals of the world, the sound created in those stone chambers is extraordinarily beautiful and clearly inspired by the amazing power and beauty of the place itself. When one listens to these recordings, the presence of the ancient peace loving peoples and their benevolent Deities truly seems to reach down through millennia and touch the listener here in the present.

The tapes created in the Hypogeum are the centerpiece of Jennifer Berezan's new CD Returning.. This is a follow up to her earlier acclaimed release She Carries Me which featured special guest Academy Award winning actress Olympia Dukakis. Returning is a multicultural collaboration uniquely weaving elements of some of the world's most profound sacred musical traditions in honor of female divinity. It is a celebration of the mystery of the wheel of life, death and rebirth.

Special guests include Linda Tillery (Grammy nominated for her Cultural Heritage Choir recording), Qwaali singers Sukhawat Ali Khan and Riffat Salamat, Navajo singer Sharon Burch (NAIRD award winner for best Native American recording), percussionist Rick Lazar (from Loreena McKennit's band),Juno award winning engineer/producer Don Benedictson and singers extraordinaire Chris & Catherine Webster.

The Neolithia Foundation obtain permission to record in Hypogeum. Permission to record in the Hypogeum has never been given before and may never be given again as it is scheduled to re-open to the public soon. As we approach the new millennium, global interest in the ancient cultures of the Goddess has become an important mass movement.

Thousands of people are embracing the values, icons, and worldviews of these early traditions for personal healing and planetary transformation. Music and art is central to this unfolding paradigm and Jennifer Berezan's Returning is a unique, timely and breathtakingly moving contribution to this emerging cultural tapestry.