In the summer of 2016, musician Ida Doremus, from Michigan’s Hopewell Mountains, released a score of compositions based on the life stories of Native American tribes, based on testimony from elders and historians. The original score was composed for a performance at the Denver Art Museum. But in collaboration with composer/composer Jason Morningstar, Doremus and Morningstar took it to a completely different level, including a production that was used in the film "The Wind Rises".

The three pieces here are not so much instrumental pieces as they are reflections on the history of the tribes and the challenges that have faced them. These are songs about the lives and struggles of the members of the first European contact with the Americas, and about the history that has shaped their beliefs and ways of life.

Doremus’s approach is to play with language and imagery, and to stretch the language to its extremes. The pieces are a mixture of traditional dances, as well as some that are much faster and have a more aggressive use of vocal.

The first of three pieces in this series, “Sacred Ground”, is a tribute to the first European contact with the Americas. The music is a mixture of traditional drumming, which is not as loud or aggressive as it is on the original score, and also elements of wild and free playing with slow, sustained tones that echo and expand in a way that is somewhat American, but not quite.

The second piece, “Sacred Stone”, is a mixture of traditional drumming, which is a lot louder and more aggressive than it was on the original score, and also some drum sounds that are a bit more in a folk-based sound. The drumming is in a much more arpeggiated way here, like a drum kit playing a folk melody. The drumming is with a much longer sustain, like a drum kit being pulled by a chain.