Heaven & Ritual is the brainchild of Evan Follmar and Rachel Gerson.

With melodic fingerpicking and polyrhythmic nuances, their music is centered around themes like: Spiritual awakening, ancestral healing, calling in the rising of the divine masculine and feminine polarities, and calling out psychological operations.

Through both the folk versions and the progressive metal versions of their songs, Heaven & Ritual acts as a bridge between heaven and earth, bringing in unity consciousness through the ritual of just being.

About Rachel

Rachel Leah Gerson is a vocalist, songwriter, and teacher, focused on channelling the divinings of the divine into your ears, hearts, and souls.

Heaven & Ritual is not just a duo. It’s a union that formed through music, and continues creating and giving.

Evan and Rachel met in March 2022. Their mutual friend, Geoffrey, invited both of them to jam at a Spring Equinox party in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they are based. Rachel arrived after some other musicians were already playing... including Evan, who was on the drum kit. Geoffrey handed her the microphone to improvise. And so it goes- before any words, handshakes, or phone numbers were exchanged, they played music together.

For the next year, they met up every few weeks to jam together with Geoffrey on bass, and later joined by their friend Ed on guitar, to see what they could come up with. Thus, their first project, g0dsm0msd0g, an improvisational, progressive metal group, was born. They played together for months before Rachel and Evan serendipitously found themselves at Turnstiles open mic night, which was where Rachel learned that Evan played guitar, and they improvised- just the two of them- with Rachel on vox and Evan on guitar and vox for the first time. Magic was in the air, but neither of them was truly ready for it.

In March of 2023, Evan asked Rachel out, and they started dating. They fell in love quickly, realising the ease that came with being able to be their true selves around one another without masking, and the intense passion that built both steadily and rapidly between them… and continues building to this day.

A few weeks after they had begun dating, they started working on their first intentionally written song together, Ritual, which they brought to Geoffrey and Ed to play for a songwriting contest. The song is over 10 minutes in length, and was lyrically inspired by the couples’ ability to be authentic with one another, struggles with mental health and projection from others before meeting one another, and a general passion and hope for the Collective to move into spaces of healthy polarity embodiment to promote Truth and healing in our world.

While the song did not win, it was the inspiration that began what is now Heaven & Ritual.

Since then, Evan and Rachel have written a full-length concept album, begun to write a second album, and have released a single and music video, “At the Party”, with more to come. They have performed three live shows as Heaven & Ritual, including- most notably- Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts, and they are excited to play in Indianapolis at renowned venue, Healer, this fall. They have also gotten engaged, and plan to marry next summer.

“Love is at the core of it all, and when we remember that, all else either falls away, or gets called out as un-truth, and we see it for what it is.” ~Rachel

Go on a journey through space and time.

Experience connection with yourself, the Collective, and the Divine.

Heal, awaken, and feel seen.