Hope Medford - Hopemedford.com - In a time when there is a need for balance between the masculine and feminine voice, Hope rises to meet this call with her conscious, powerful beats. Hope’s indpendent music is a journey of percussion and feminine vocals with layers of world instruments including cajon, djembe, halo drum, dun duns, singing bowls, digeridoo, flute, and sacred tones with a dub dance feel. Purify is a ten song journey through a purification. It is a sensual experience of hip-notic tribal dance beats and feminine soul. This album weaves many layers of acoustic world instruments fused with electronic hand drums and textures of the feminine voice. Deep rhythms laced with medicine drums and heavy traditional west african Dun Dun's bring an authentic heart to the bass of these beats. There are also textures of reggae, improv, sacred chanting, and soul. Collaborators on Purify include vocalists: Aisha Fukushima, Sara Tone, Gretchen Retka and Diane Patterson -Violinist: Tim Snider -Digeridoo: Jungle Love -Horn: Max RIbner - Freesyle Poetry: Luka Lesson -Keys: Damon WIlliams This album was recorded all along a journey in studios from Taos New Mexico, to Portland, Oregon, to San Francisco, to L.A., to Hawai'i, to Bali, Indonesia from late 2012- early 2013. Hope Medford is a percussionist- and Purify is her fullest recording to date; It is a step beyond Hope's first album, Back to the Mother (2011). Hope is the percussionist for Nahko and Medicine for the People. Bringing the tribal rhythms to Medicine’s sound, Hope invokes ancient vibrations mixed with street root beats on the Afro Peruvian Bajo Cajon drum and West African Djembe drum. Her unique flair integrates influences from cultures where she has studied percussion including Senegal, West Africa, Brazil, and Peru. A hand drummer for nearly twenty years, she is also an artist and community activist, and these passions continue to inspire and fuel her music. From the article "Spreading Hope" Nov 2012, by Noah Fish of Face Forward, a professional artist collective based in Minneapolis. Find it at faceforward.com, a website dedicated to humanity through art: "The rare energy Hope drums with is rooted in the vitality she acquires from the world itself. She pulls inspiration from the spiritual places she's traveled along her journey, ranging from tribal land in Africa to Indian Reservations in New Mexico. She is a hand percussionist, and performs playing the Afro-Peruvian box drum, called the Bajo Cajon, and the West African Djembe drum. Hope is the percussionist for Medicine For the People; a dynamic collaboration that began in 2008 when she and Nahko discovered a transcendent connection while playing music together around a campfire... Their energy is formed to make a vessel for the audience. It’s music for the people. Hey, Medicine For the People, I get it now."