Nopalera Sessions

On Sunday evening bike ride in my neighbourhood I decided to take the long, scenic option, and this is what I found.

Carlos de la Cruz couldn’t scape the camera at my London’s home studio for the weekend, preparing for two sets, we talk about the heritage of music from Middle East’s and Africa, the ups and downs of life as a DJ and the beautiful community of Latin musicians in London that keep the rhythm going, making the walls sweat until the early hours. Magicians at work!!

C’était en décembre à Londres. Merci @nopalerasessions pour ton invitation et tes clichés 📸

Happy Vernal Equinox! It's been about two weeks since The Sound of Earth session at @sense__ability and today feels like an appropriate time to say some heartfelt thanks to all involved who made this possible. There is still one week of amazing events left until the residency ends next weekend, so do check out the beautiful space of contemplation and peace created in the Crypt while you still can. Thank you to Masha @mashasegal for inviting Elki @nopalerasessions , who in turn invited Miko @miqo.eyes and me to collaborate on this project of going into the clay, into the earth, into the lower world, to work with our shadows and to bring light and release there. The seeds planted in the clay we received will soon start to grow and start the whole cycle of rebirth again, symbolically transforming what we released into new life. Already looking forward to the next sonic adventure with Ellki and Miko! Thank you also to for the great sound engineering of Chris @solarsoundtribe , and to Nick for the beautiful photos taken magically in the dark!

Soundcheck for tonight’s session “The Womb, The Dreamworld and The Transition”, inspired on Temazcal sweat lodge practice with Leela Gal, Elki Guillen and MIKO. Tickets at Sense Ability website!!. 6 pm St Pancras Parish Church. Euston

Snippet from the exploration of our shared dream journey | this Saturday at @sense__ability together with @nopalerasessions | inspired by temascal (Sweatlodge) traditions, we are creating together a sound&smell scape - for us to dive deeper into the realms of dreams and rebirth ceremonies. Join us 💤

Did you dream tonight? Join me at @sense__ability exhibition Monday evening at 18:15, I’ll be sharing more about “The art of Dreaming” - a meditative experience with special herbal teas, oils and hydrosols, dreaming pillows and curated music.

Gearing up for Sunday's performance at @sense__ability adding and experimenting with layering, unusual textures and recording techniques with @miqo.eyes and @nopalerasessions . This event will be a powerful experience into the shadow and aspects of ourselves that we wish to release. Accompanied by a host of ceramic instruments, and using fresh clay as a medium, participants will work their fears, phobias, pain and grief into the clay. The clay object will then be taken home with the intention to bury and be returned to the earth. The clay will also contain seeds, which will in turn transmute our darkness into new life with the coming Spring.

The Sound of Earth. Here are some shots of experimentation with clay either dry, cooked, raw, etc… on the studio and outdoors, to create soundscapes towards our sound installation, performance working with clay instruments at The Crypt Gallery as part of the Sense Ability project. In January I was in front of 5000 year old tomb in Mexico, looking into the clay vessels layered as offerings inside of the chamber and at the same I had @mashasegal , producer and curator of Sense Ability on the phone confirming a Nopalera Session at The Crypt Gallery, so the call to work with clay in different ways was obvious. Philip got involved straight away and we started working once again in sound, stories, dreamworld and all those things that keeps on inviting us to create and weave with and so The Sound of Earth was born. Later on Miko joined to add a layer with his experience as a sound artist and very keen on experimentation on soundscapes, dimensions, resonance, frequencies… If you decide to join us, please book your space, tickets in bio and @sense__ability website. We will provide mats, bolsters and blankets but highly recommended to come well layered to absorb the sounds without cold. Fresh clay will be available to play with as part of the session so , so be aware it can be a bit messy but fun. Tickets in Bio. Pics at Philip Avierinos @ensomble.sounds home studio and at La Nopalera in Wolves Lane Centre with @miqo.eyes .

An immersive, long-form session by Elki Guillén @nopalerasessions , Leela @wellness_leela and Miko @miqo.eyes that guides participants into a shared dream frequency through deep meditation, rhythm, sound, and ritual. Supported by live music featuring drums, rattles, and evolving soundscapes, participants may experience a state of deep relaxation or remain fully awake while expressing their dream. The session is carefully guided and co-created with the musicians, prioritising safety, sensory depth, and dreaming as lived experience rather than interpretation. The intention of this session is to reintroduce dreaming as an active, living part of everyday life, rather than something that belongs only to the unconscious. The objective is to provide participants with practical, embodied tools to connect with the dreamworld and carry its sensibility into waking life, shifting how the day-to-day is perceived, felt, and navigated. Rather than focusing on dream interpretation, the experience emphasises dreaming as a state of awareness, a frequency that can be accessed through the body, the senses, and collective presence. Across many cultures worldwide, dreaming has been understood as a source of guidance, healing, creativity, and orientation, woven into daily decision-making and communal life. This session draws inspiration from those traditions by honoring the shared understanding that dreaming helps us listen more deeply, to ourselves, to others, and to the unseen layers shaping our lives. #londonevents #mindfullness #meditationlondon #londonart #londonlivemusic

Led by @ensomble.sounds and @nopalerasessions , The Sound of Earth is an immersive sound and clay ceremony exploring liminal thresholds between life and death, body and earth, darkness and renewal, taking place at @thecryptgallerylondon on March 8th. Through resonant soundscapes created with meso-american ceramic wind instruments, participants are guided to shape clay effigies of themselves, or of aspects they wish to release. Drawing on ancient burial rituals in which ceramics accompanied the dead into the next life, the performance reclaims clay as a vessel for passage - this time shaped by the living. Philip and Elki weave together sound, ceramics, storytelling, and somatic reflection, incorporating fresh London clay, bio-dynamically grown cactus mucilage, and seeds embedded within each effigy. These are taken home to be buried and germinate with the Spring Equinox, allowing renewal to emerge from shadow work undertaken in darkness, and extending the ritual beyond the crypt into the living world. Spaces a limited to preserve the intimacy of the event 🌿 More info and booking available via @sense__ability ’s website 🌞

A little late on this post, but back in December had a great collaboration with Elki from @nopalerasessions to bring storytelling, music and cacti into a wonderful fusion of a celebration for a community project at @kewgardens . 1&2. Sampling cacti sounds back in the summer 3. Edited and imported these scrapes, clicks and plucks into the Op1 and @pocketscion using them to jam along to 4. Using the sounds of the cacti as a background texture, used a host of other instruments, many from the Americas, to help tell the story of Cacti 5. The gorgeous Nash Conservatory at Kew - more like a Greek Temple! 6. Sound check inside - wow! 7. A little bit of Greece 8. Plugging the pocket scion into a Christmas cactus for festive vibes 9. Artistic and culinary cacti delights from @eieouo and @nopalerasessions 10. Added musical wizardry from @leahsaltoun and @jabbaristan A massive thank you to Elki for involving me in this project and dreaming this into being! We have a new, exciting project in the works for March! ✨