Mayan Ruins: Unusual fusion

A few weeks ago, I spotted a new CD release on CDBaby. When I found it had two long chiftitellis on it, I couldn’t resist. Titled after the name of the group, Mayan Ruins, the CD turned out to be a very interesting fusion of styles. And very different from the usual belly dance music I’ve seen on CDBaby, where I’m a habitual downloader of the MP3 versions. I talked to Christian Hartman of Mayan Ruins on their particular style:

So who is Mayan Ruins?
Mayan Ruins are a collective of a dozen or more musicians who love both improvisational playing and playing for dancers (Tribal, Traditional and free-form trance). The lineup is constantly shifting from show to show and track to track on our albums.

Why did you choose a name like Mayan Ruins?
The name is meant as a poetic image attempting to describe our sound-moss covered pyramids amidst jungles teeming with life, as well as decay.

How did you guys happen to get together?
Derek, Denny and I played together previously in a band that grew out of a special project involving trance dancing to invoke one’s personal animal totem (the band was called ‘The Totems’). After that group dissolved I was determined to create a loose-knit group that would be entirely improvisational and not have a set line-up of players (so it wouldn’t raise the ego and scheduling issues common to a traditional ‘band’ set-up).

Is music a profession for you all or is this a hobby mostly?
SEMI-professional (we actually make some decent money from sales and performances) but we do it mainly for artistic enjoyment and the joy of interacting with dancers and audiences.

I notice a lot of different genres combining and fusing in your music…
We draw from lots of sources: Arabic, Persian and Indian classical and folk music, psychedelia from the late 60′s and early 70′s, traditional African and Gypsy music, shamanic chant and drumming as well as Mongolian style throat singing and Tibetan singing crystal bowls. We then mix it all into a purely improvisational piece that can transport us and the audience to another universe.

Yes, it’s very unusual – not your everyday stuff. What inspires your music?
When we work with Tribal dancers, we really interact closely-their movements sometimes dictate what we do and sometimes we lead them along. We all listen to what everyone is doing and there are never any musical egos trying to push to the front. Our ultimate inspiration comes from our diverse musical backgrounds and the chemistry between band members, dancers and audience.

Where did the belly dance connection come from?
We’ve all worked in various groups-tribal dance troupes, traditional world music as well as rock and pop and gothic bands. The bellydancers love us because we play for their enjoyment as well as ours.

Who is it that loves chiftitelli so much in your group? Like I do…We ALL love it! We have some great slow-move dancers and sword dancers who are always asking for a chifit!

Yeah, I would too! What plans do you have for albums in the future? And – anything specifically bellydancy?
Probably we’ll have another mostly live album out by this summer and yes, it’ll have some great bellydance beats as well as some relaxing ‘listening’ music. We’ve heard of a lot of massage therapists working with our latest studio album as well as a TaiChi school and several bellydance teachers use it in class.

We look forward to it! The core Mayan Ruins group is Christian Hartman (bass and drums), Derek Garteiz (guitars, drums and percussion-he also does the recordings and mixdowns) and Denny Schoeny (drums and various percussion). We are often joined (live and on recordings) by Annette Christianson (violin), Paul Ravenscraft (conga, percussion), Zachary J. Mechlem (drums, ‘hindi style’ slide guitar), Rob Dorsey (drums,  chant/vocals), Gregory Morris (violin, mandolin, guitars), Will Menton (electric guitar, drums) as well as several other like-minded and talented musicians.