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Total Album Time:59:47
With music by Snatam Kaur, Miten, Deva Premal, Aethera, Manish Vyas, Terry Oldfield, Tulku, and Prem Joshua Spirit Lounge is a star-studded album not to be missed!
Except for a few break downs and other embellishments, it’s getting harder and harder to tell new age chant music from rave music. The eastern touches, the beats and the vibe are all fusing in some far off left field corner that is at least giving people the message to chill. This collection pulls from various New Earth releases that could enjoy further exploitation. Not exactly a round up of girl friend music, this somewhat experimental world beat collection is well programmed for leading edge ears whether into the healing arts, world beat or sonic exploration.
Chris Spector
Midwest Record
2009 New Earth Records brings together some of its most radiant talents for the haunting and invigorating Spirit Lounge, a compilation perfect for yoga, meditation, or just chillin' and/or lovin' unconditionally. Artists include Joshua Prem, Snatam Kaur, Tulku and Deva Premal. The focus seldom wavers from the divine within, but along the way into perfect union with the spirit there are pit stops for dancing, dreaming, and even some soulful longing. New Earth has always helped lead the way in the evolving field of contemporary chill-out/new age hybrid music, and for Spirit Lounge they pull out all the stops to create a sequence of songs that covers a lot of ground while allowing you to not go anywhere but within in order to heal and reclaim your inner light.
"Into Blue" starts things off with the celebratory yet melancholic (in the time-honored Celtic tradition) ballad, sung in Gaelic with beautiful synth pad accompaniment by Aethra. Other great tracks include Manish Vyas' "Tumi Bhaja," which weaves a hypnotic groove via a Sanskrit male-female vocal chant and a very out-there sitar shimmering over tablas, drums, and moody synths. But the big guns are saved for the second half of the album, like the stunningly uplifting kirtan "Ong Namo," sung by the gifted Snatam Kaur. She brings such a crystal purity of tone and honesty of heart that nurturing grudges or negative feelings in the presence of her singing becomes almost impossible; no shadows can survive in such amazing light. Any uncomfortable emotions dredged up by your meditations are evaporated by Kaur's radiant warmth.
If you're looking for something to play around the house that's either pure stillness or pure movement, you might want to save Spirit Lounge for the transition between. Like the meditation instructor Osho (also represented on New Earth records), the makers of Spirit Lounge know there's an important link between frenzied movement (as in the shuffling rhythms of Tulku's African-influenced "Maha Maya"), trance (a sequenced dancefloor remix of Joshua Prem's "Shiva Moon"), and perfect stillness (the naturalist flute of Steve Gordon's "Gayatri"). When you're not sure where you're going, go to the Spirit Lounge.
DailyOM Music
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Koyasan | Deuter
