Ascensão, this contemporary classic of both Brazilian music and culture, captures the clarity and grace of Serena Assumpção in her invocation and embrace of a fundamental but little considered understanding: that we all are, essentially, spiritual beings. Hence, the breath – air, mystery, inspiration – which gives rise to life, consequently, gives rise to chanting; that's why we sing, to return to what we are and to the source of what sound is: propagated vibration, energy. In the Yorùbá (Nagô) cosmogony, each spirit (soul, head) is described as an ori. Oris inhabit an invisible realm called Òrun, also Heaven, ruled by the primal force of the Òrìṣà (the Orishas, Orixás in portuguese), the vital and sacred energy present in all natural elements: the aṣẹ (axé). As such, the earthly life, the bodily and individual human experience of each ori constitutes but a mere and brief interval, a journey through this visible realm that we call Earth, world, the Ayé. Thus, all the paths each embodied being on earth choses and travels by – movement and transformation – are attempts to return, to elevate oneself to the invisible realm, and to heal the visible realm. This is to ascend, this is Ascensão.