Reema: Truth Love Creation
Nutone Records
Reema: Truth Love Creation
Reema Datta is a beautiful devotee who embraces many Vedic traditions and techniques and puts her innate abilities into a collection of nine chants. When it comes to Yoga, Reema is no amateur. She first learned mantra (sacred syllable), Ayurvedic cooking, pranayama (breath techniques) and asana (posture) from her grandfather and mother and eventually studied advanced asana with Danny Paradise, Dharma Mittra and Larry Schultz in India. In this regard, Reema brings her devotion into her music, which is primarily traditional kirtan call-and-response chanting techniques that are a testament to her cultured sadhana (spiritual practice).
Reema sings with a classic nasal projection that is soft and serene. She is accompanied by light tablas, keyboards and flutes performed and arranged by Ferenz Kallos. An occasional cello fills the gaps between repetitions and the overall impact is sensual and grounded. Each chant takes long breaths and invokes a loving feeling of gratitude. It’s a sweet offering with a pleasant straightforward approach to the practice that caresses the heart with vulnerable nectar.
Reema is the co-author of the chant and meditation book Sacred Sanskrit Words and conducts annual retreats to her grandfather’s village in Central India. Reema runs the Usha Yoga Foundation, bringing Yoga to marginalized communities worldwide. reemayoga.com, nutonemusic.com/reemadatta –– M.R.M.
Al Conti: Scheherazade
Shadowside Music
Al Conti: Scheherazade
Al Conti is a composer and performer who offers a global sound that travels deep into the stirring fields of the Middle East and North India using a thin blanket of rhythmic accompaniment to bring an impassioned feel to his music. Conti has a nice compositional feel for calm and peaceful melodies that keep you hooked without putting you to sleep. I found several tracks on this album quite inspiring. I particularly enjoyed “Desert Nights,” which blends Arabic scales with rich augmented textures that lures you into a welcoming and sprightly fantasy world.
Conti is a composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist who plays piano, acoustic guitar, violin, electronic keyboards and percussion. This mean that his albums are made up of much of his own handiwork. I like the way he produced this record and though it did feel a bit repetitive, I was pleasantly surprised by his ability to arrange consistent melodies around soft percussive accompaniment.
In addition to his music career, Conti is committed to supporting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (leukemia.org), Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org) and Until There’s A Cure (until.org), which combats the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Conti recently joined Kevin Bacon, Jessica Alba, Shelley Morrison and other celebrities in lending his name to the Until There’s A Cure foundation to help raise awareness and funds for research. alconti.net –– M.R.M.
Chant: Music for the Soul: Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligendruez
Universal Music
Chant: Music For The Soul: Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligendruez
Those of us firmly ensconced in the Yoga community may think that the words chant and Sanskrit are synonymous, but there are long-held devotional chant lineages in a variety of languages, traditions and communities worldwide. The new release by the Cistercian monks of Stift Heiligendreuz, exemplifies this. Stift Heiligendreuz is a Cistercian abbey located in the woods in Austria, founded in 1133 and the monks are still chanting today. These chants sung by the monks are prayers, prayer that they begin every day at 5:15 A.M. in the Vienna woods. The tradition of Gregorian chant is named after the seventh century Pope Gregory the Great and it is a tradition that lyrically continues to this day and through recordings such as Chant, it is indeed a living and devotional one.
The tracks on Chant include the monks incanting a glorious mass for the dead that is far from maudlin, but is rather uplifting and joyous. Their night prayer clears the vibration of the day so we may feel the night’s invitation. The interlude “Stift Heiligendreuz Bells” is literally that, and the chiming of the bells strike the tones of the heart with their purity. This album is suitable for meditation, background music to set a high vibration or to invoke a devotional mood, or for healing work or personal practice. chantmusicforparaside.com. –– Felicia Marie Tomasko RN
Spring: Spring Fever
Springgroove
Spring: Spring Fever
Spring is well-known to many in Los Angeles who have enjoyed her varied contributions to the music and Yoga communities. Her light is infectious and she’s been on stage with everyone. Her ubiquitous striking presence is always filled with love while her smile illuminates any room she enters with egoless shakti. Spring Fever is not her first release, but it does seem like her first serious effort to make a name for herself, and hopefully she will succeed at that because her music is worth hearing.
Spring is first a singer with a soulful voice blessed with hope and vigorous inflections that buzz with stimulating vibrations. She accompanies herself with acoustic guitar and an army of angelic musicians, headed by acclaimed spiritual music composer and performer Hans Christian who also handles the music direction for the album. Dave Stringer plays harmonium and sings backup. Mark Gorman offers his always perfect bass lines and the entire ensemble gives you that feeling that everyone is having the time of their life playing.
Spring Fever was recorded live and it isn’t a kirtan (call and response) album that some folks might expect, but it is spirited and every tune has that contagious energy that makes you want to move, groove and feel the soul gyrate. Fever appropriately begins with a sprightly cover of Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions classic, “People Get Ready” setting the tone for this folk-rock driven album. Spring has a sort of Tracy Chapman meets Bob Marley with a hint of Tina Turner blended into a spiritual tapestry of melodies and sentiment. She very creatively throws a call-and-response chant like “Om Namo Bhagavate Nityanadaya” between her more soulful blues tunes and this is no easy task.
Filled with dynamic positive energy, Spring Fever is a festive, spiritual collection of vibrations that will stir the soul with plenty of snappy surprises that bring out the frisky, dancing Shiva in all of us. springgroove.com ––M.R.M.
Eccodek: Shivaboom
White Swan
Eccodek: Shivaboom
Eccodek, also known as Andrew McPherson, is a Canadian sound scientist, producer, remixer and multi-instrumentalist. With Shivaboom, Eccodek blends an electronic alchemy that uses a dub-oriented vibe with a spirited tapestry of sounds that are loungy, ethnic and global. Fans of the Buddha Bar series might recognize his global-fusion soundscapes since he’s been part of that series and other world beat compilations.
Shivaboom offers listeners a tapestry of sampled beats fused with inspired singers and gifted multi-instrumentalists delivering a skilled blend of dub, funk, jazz and cinematic electronics. All of the tracks are basically groove-oriented and lounge-driven with vocals in different dialects. It is the sound of the dub chamber, the goat skin drum and decaying vintage synths. It is the sound of Mali, Turkey, Fiji, Nigeria, India, Canada and beyond.
“Behind the Mask” is a dub-reggae influenced track that captures a groove-oriented vibration that will inspire many people to get up and dance. “Weightless Space” tends to get soft in the middle and the singing drones keep the party on chill without putting enough gas into the beats. “Empty Pockets” starts off with a trance attitude but then sounds a lot like all the other Buddha Bar tracks.
Shivaboom is a cool release and I liked its basic chill feel, but this genre is starting to get redundant. This album reminded me a bit of that cross-cultural alchemy that got hot in mid 2005-06 era with Cheb I Sabbah; but hey, it is nicely mixed and if you are looking for world-beat electronically-produced music to gyrate to, this isn’t a bad choice. I like the musicianship and there’s plenty of style to go with all the cool, trippy, stunts. whiteswanrecords.com –– M.R.M.
Michael R. Mollura is a sacred musician, writer, graduate student in psychology and keeper of the bhakti flame. Find him at: michaelmollura.com
By Michael Mollura, Felicia M. Tomasko
