United Freedom Collective share debut single ‘Manifest Bliss’ on Maribou State’s Dama Dama label, partnering with climate emergency action group EarthPercent for Earth Day on Bandcamp.

Newly signed to Dama Dama – the imprint founded by Maribou State in 2016 – are United Freedom Collective: an ever-expanding cast of musical artists and friends with a close-knit trio at its core. In late 2020, Mathieu Seynaeve and WaiFung Tsang, musicians as well as clinicians and researchers of psychedelic therapy, met up with music producer and yoga instructor Robbie Redway for a sound journey at a remote barn on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. The result was a set of tracks and practices that shaped the blueprint of what United Freedom Collective is now. 

Debut single ‘Manifest Bliss’ sets out the stall for the band, a joyful clash of live instrumentation and electronic production: “‘Manifest Bliss’ started with a melody line Robbie wrote on a teak flute he picked up in India, just after he returned from a trip over there. It’s layered with percussion to give it a kind of chaotic, ecstatic feeling, similar to what you might get listening to Jungle and D&B,” says Mathieu. “WaiFung added his erhu (Chinese bow) with a counter melody to the flute, encompassing the broader sonic palate of United Freedom Collective: worldwide folkloric instruments coupled with pianos, guitars and synths. It was completed by some finishing touches with Liam Ivory in Maribou State’s London studio.” 

The band are partnering with prominent climate emergency charity EarthPercent (the organisation co-founded by Brian Eno) for Earth Day on Friday 22nd April with all proceeds from download sales of the single on Bandcamp going to EarthPercent to fund global climate causes.

"We’re grateful to be part of the Earth Percent community, uniting artists to address climate change,” says the group. “United Freedom Collective originated from a unity experience in the Amazonian jungle, and is deeply rooted in ecology and holism. We make music for healing, to find a place deep within that transcends individual boundaries. A place where we can find connection with the ecosystem around us. We hope you enjoy our first single ‘Manifest Bliss’." 

The collective — with Robbie’s beachside studio in Margate at its heart — has blossomed and the sound has evolved into something wider than the imagination. Collectively drawing on the clinical work of Seynaeve and Tsang while also taking influence from worlds of Zen Taoism, Chinese plant medicines, Jungian analysis, headless way meditations, yoga, indigeneity, Amazonian and psychedelic cultures, icaros, worldwide healing traditions, the nature of birds & trees and Buddhism to name a few.

‘Manifest Bliss’ is released on Friday 22nd April on the Dama Dama label.

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