But shortly before we jump on to the list, I would like to say a bit about some special roles that I would like to assign each artist. So we have all the usual party stereotype roles: clowns, eccentrics, mess makers etc assigned to each artist as they fit in.

Claude Challe:

New Age Eccentric

For his wonderful creation of Buddha Bar, Claude Challe is one of my favorite artists. He would be the New Age Eccentric at the party for his music album SpaceSex. (I understand why left no space between… and a little thought over the title is quite comical…sex is spaceless!). For this and for the Buddha, he is eligible for an extra toast at the party. He may redeem it secretly with me!!

Enya

Cat Mess Maker

Sorry about the title, but I had to give to Enya with no other option. She would be the cat mess maker at the party with her companion cats. I love to listen to her music but for her love for cats…. I’m Speechless. She said in an interview in 1988, “I’ve got a cat. I love cats; at one stage I had 12. It was just bliss. They’d all lie around in the sun and then come up and climb around my neck.” Gosh! My head is reeling… 12 cats! I hardly managed to be with one cat. I would ask her to come with her cat or bunch of cats and see what a mess they can make around.

Yanni

The Romancer

Listening to his Keys to Imagination and If I Could Tell You is kind of fulfilling experience that can be said if I could tell you. Not that I am dumb but Yanni does create silence and more silence in me weeding out noise. So romantic and deeply moving, his music is what I would like to listen after all the party mess ups.

Sivamani and James Asher

Mad at Party

I actually intend to put up their photographs here, but later changed my mind to use this album cover, as it helps to understand their madness better. Party needs some madness and these guys perfectly meet the need and move like thunder. Give them a percussion, they are at their madness at once. I tried to synchronize my dance steps to their beats once and had a joint pain for a week. Stay away from these guys, your legs may start functioning on its own and it may be long time before you realize it. Their music madness is dangerously tempting.

Tulku

The Mysterious Mask Man

Like his music, Tulku can take up a mysterious role at the party. His music composition always feature a ghastly beautiful voice. Maybe he could reproduce one such for a little frightening effect.

Gurdjieff & Osho

Party Saints, Serious vs Cosmic Joker

Saints too have a place at my party. But this is New Age and you don’t expect me to invite one who keeps chanting and makes a prayer hall out of a party time. Gurdjieff and Osho perfectly suit for a new age Christmas party. Gurdjieff is all serious and can play a tune on piano (maybe his Keys to Enlightenment) while Osho, the cosmic joker, can crack some jokes or find an idiot in the party to make fun of. He is a real serious joker.

Bhaskar Chandavarkar

Yet another Romancer

(I got only this poor quality pic for this great musician after an hour search on internet.)

Like, Yanni, Bhaskar Chandavarkar is yet another romantic. I have a great love for his music album: Music of the Seas. If I could ask him a wish at the party, it would be a morning walk with him on sea shore listening to his SEAS. His music albums are highly romantic and would be a perfect piece to end up a party.

Michael Cretu, Enigma

Mysterious Philosopher

Michael Cretu is another mysterious character in the party that I would invite. His music project Enigma has an aura of mystery around it. I had always loved to listen to his albums. His debut album Sadness (Part I) was a philosophical musical interpretation of life after death. Perfect for the role of an Mysterious Philosopher!

Post from: New Age Vibe

In my introductory post on Music of the Seas, I said “the album moves towards the shore rather than deep sea.” I stress this again. The album is not about different elemental music of Sea (sounds produced by water in the sea). Rather, it explorers the music of the life around the sea, music of the life that is centering on sea. It’s an Epic in music representing a mixture of feelings and a state of being for everyone.

For a fisherman, Sea is both the celebration and the funeral, with so many mysterious feelings in between. Today, I’d like to write on two tracks: Fisherman’s Dawn and Against the Tide.

Dawn for a fisherman is full of hope, desire, and questions of the day ahead. It poses struggle. Track Fisherman’s Dawn is such a mixture of feelings: hope, desire, longing and questions. And these feelings are so universal that it is truly Everyone’ dawn. Listening to this track, I often had cathartic release at times of heavy burden. At normal times, it is still a nice composition to listen to.

More Cathartic in nature is Against the Tide. With its death-toll like bell sound that begins the track, the hard distantly-striking drum beats disturb all sedimented sorrows in heart. The silence between those heart-disturbing beats is very meaningful and adds tragic beauty to the track.

There are times when we control, suppress our cries. And for many this suppression is too long, too much that it settles in the heart, blocking the natural flow of tears. If such is the case with anyone, listening to these tracks can help. They really dig out so much from the heart. You will feel relaxed and light.

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Seas has lived through quarter of my life and will increasingly live further. Starting with the track Deep Blue, the album moves towards the shore rather than deep sea. Deep Blue is serene, undisturbed, reflecting the self-same nature of Seas beyond shores. Anyone listening to this track(or the album as a whole) cannot forget the impression that bamboo flute makes. It lives in my heart as a treasureable memory. How do you expect the next track to be, Mido? more serene? If it is, then i’m sure you’d be rather listening to my snoring this time (did I forget to tell you? I do that exercise when I listen to Al Gromer Khan’s albums)

The second track is Coastal Garba, a very festival mood track tuned for a Garba dance. Garba is more like the western social dance taking its roots in Gujarat, India and is more spiritually connected. Dancers go round a focal structure (mostly idol of Amba, goddess, or a lamp) clapping their hands at regular interval. Coastal Garba imitates this scenario. Like the painless, strainless dance movements, the rhythm goes smooth, less stressful, more relaxed, let-go. I label this track D2O! (pardon me, Chem was hammered too much into head in my schooldays… I mean the track is a Dancing gas).

More than 15 years have passed since Seas was first released. Still it’s one of the best selling new age albums. Music Today, recording label, calls it “multi-platinum best-selling album.” For all this, and for my personal liking, I’m writing on his album in a series. Rest of the tracks will be covered in other posts. On my part, I make sure that I don’t sing you a lullaby in this series (like, next only to my mother, Al Gromer Khan does to me when I listen to him) nor drive you crazy (as Trilok Gurtu does often with his drums, tempting me to play next.)

Post from: New Age Vibe