I made The Sound Cleanse Altar as a place to pause, listen, and put something down.

I was inspired by blue bottle traditions found in Gullah Geechee and Angolan communities, where cobalt blue bottles have been used as vessels of protection. I kept thinking about the stories of haints being caught in the bottles overnight, held there until morning when the sunlight could cleanse or remove them.

This became personal to me through my grandfather. He was born and raised in Dublin, North Carolina, a place that no longer exists as a town. The blue bottles in this altar are my way of reaching toward a place that was part of his childhood but is no longer physically there. I wanted to take something that connects me to his world and bring it into my own, using sound, memory, and ritual to honor him and the lineage he comes from.

In that way, the altar is also a form of remembrance. The bottles hold the idea of what we inherit, what we carry, and what we choose to release.

So I invite you to sit with the altar and listen.

Pick up the headphones and let the protection prayer be the beginning. I created the prayer as an intentional opening to establish protection and create a space where you can slow down and listen. From there, the soundscape moves through my original compositions, voice, vibration, and sounds rooted in African diasporic traditions.

You don’t have to do anything perfectly. You don’t have to know what you’re supposed to feel. Just listen.

Maybe something comes up. Maybe a memory. Maybe a feeling in your body. Maybe nothing at all.

Whatever you bring into this space, you can imagine the blue bottle as a container for what you’re ready to release. Let the sound hold you for a moment. Stay as long as you need.

I made this because I believe sound can carry memory, intention, protection, and care. I wanted to create a space where ancestral knowledge isn’t just something we look back on, but something we can continue to practice, transform, and carry forward.

Thank you for spending a moment with my work.

Protection, storytelling, and healing have always been advanced technologies of survival and imagination.

• Dunia, The Sound Freq