AUM
The Indica Project
“Devi's Song of Everything"
Devi’s Song of Everything
"When Wood's daughter Devi was very young, she came by the studio and told me she had learned some Shlokas and mantras. So I asked her if she wanted me to record her. She was really excited and we recorded it.”—Storms
This album has the most thoroughly disarming opening I have heard in recent memory. The voice of young Devi singing the “AUM" mantra penetrates me to the core. Not since the field recordings of Alan Lomax in the forgotten cabins of Appalachia have I heard what sounds to be like an honest voice without ambition, voice correction, of any detectible sense of guile. I played this opening voice on my patio and by chance I had inadvertently clicked the single song repeat button. Devi’s voice played her 30 second song for several minutes before I noticed that the music wasn’t moving to the next song.
Composer Gavin Bryars famously played a field recording of a homeless man singing on repeat “Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet” in the studio when he left to fetch some equipment. When he returned the studio was calm, and a sweet spirit filled the room. Bryars composed a piece underneathe that recording adding instruments one by one until a little orchestra supported the repeating voice. This piece became his most effective piece. I have heard it “live” and it silenced the room and silenced my mind. I felt that same spirit listening to Devi sing this “Saraswati Shloka.”
It is the same feeling I got listening to Ralph Stanley singing a hymn with the instrumentation removed, or when George Martin played John Lennon’s voice track singing, “Cry Baby Cry” to a live audience at The Palace in Hollywood. This voice of Devi is an invitation for me to “Come on inside where everything is AUM.” I am AUM. Devi is AUM. My doubts and fears are AUM. All time and substance is AUM. This paragraph is AUM. YOU are AUM, too. The opposite of AUM is contained in AUM. And blessed AUM makes all those most important things that have been keeping me awake at night too small to matter in the vast ocean of AUM.
A Musical Stream of Consciousness in Meditation
The recording of young Devi sat on the shelf for awhile until it became the catalyst for this album of Indian Global Fusion deeply infused with the long tradition of Indian Classical and both Hindu and Buddhist devotional music. This is interesting to me, since I have been learning to meditate once in a while lately. What does the meditation on AUM sound like? Well, I know it isn’t a drone. For me, it sounds like a rushing mighty wind of extraneous thoughts invading the meditative landscape.
This album proceeds with the stories in the mind of meditation that flow from AUM when a life-long meditator contemplates the four parts of A-U-M. My little research leads me to the understanding that is (A) waking, (U) sleeping, (M) dreaming, and the silence after the (M) which is transcendence. It can also be experienced as birth, life, death and the Beyond. It has structure, and it always has something to say that fits the exact moment. This album illustrates that silent story inside of a quiet, but not inactive, mind. I thought I was supposed to experience silence and a drone. What a relief! The quieter the mind, the better the story.
"The structure of landscape is infinitesimal,Like the structure of music,seamless, invisible.Even the rain has larger sutures.What holds the landscape together, and what holds music together,Is faith, it appears—faith of the eye, faith of the ear."—From Charles Wright’s “Body & Soul II (For Coleman Hawkins)”
This album occupies the sweet spot between Bollywood and Indian Classical. It is a satisfying album of Indian jazz with seamless fusion savvy and a playful but deeper meaning. D. Wood and Storms have a musical sense of humor that never undermines their expansive musical and spiritual intent.
These guys aren’t trying to prove themselves anymore. They did that long ago. This album is a grab bag full of hymns jumping with joy. This “AUM” most certainly wants to take you higher, and deeper, with plenty of laughs along the way. Boom laka laka laka Boom! The story never ends, it resumes!
"Saraswati is the Goddess of art, music etc. So we began the album with a Shloka dedicated to her and Brahma is the God of creativity. We ended with a Shloka for him….
The Meaning of the Saraswati Shloka:
1: Salutations to Devi Saraswati, Who is the giver of Boons and fulfiller of Wishes,2: O Devi, when I begin my Studies, Please bestow on me the capacity of Right Understanding, always."
—Storms from a chat with Billy on Messenger
1 SARASWATI SHLOKA
This song is described in the text above. I recommend putting this one track on repeat for a few minutes. Try it and see! You might feel something wonderful. Then you may be open to hear the composition that follows.
Devi Giannetti – Voice
"The ‘AUM' symbol symbolizes the Universe and the ultimate reality. It is the most important of Hindu symbols. At the dawn of creation, from emptiness first emerged a syllable consisting of three letters – A-U-M (often written as OM). AUM is considered an original (primal) sound that rang out in the created universe. It is the root mantra.”—Storms from a chat with Billy on Messenger
2 AUM
You might expect a drone or an improvisation, but...
"Expectation closes the door to what is happening in the moment.”—Robert Fripp
Billy: Feels like music from a chart. Not improvised entirely. Too much unison for improv.
Storms: Absolutely. 80% is written. Like a small Chamber Music ensemble.
What follows surprised me! S. Shivkumar’s violin takes the lead with a line similar to a nuanced fast raga and a tone that is closer to Appalachian folk than Yehudi Menuhin’s sweetness. This is a voice! All the instruments which follow sing without dialogue! We are meditating and we are following a story supported in one supportive voice in this chamber ensemble. This Indian Classical Jazz storytelling including D. Woods fine electric guitar, and the rhythmic speechifying of S. Sundar on Mirdangam (pictured below). As in my own meditation, the story unfolds without call and response and without contradiction.
"I'd say that what we hear is the quality of our listening."—Robert Fripp
Storms – Bass
D Wood – Guitar
S Shivkumar – Violin
S Sundar – Mirdangam
D Wood – Guitar
S Shivkumar – Violin
S Sundar – Mirdangam
Vimāna are mythological flying palaces or
chariots described in Hindu texts and Sanskrit epics.
"Freighters on the nod on the surface of the bayOne of these days we're going to sail away,Going to sail into eternitySome kind of ecstasy got a hold on me"—Bruce Cockburn from the song “Wondering Where the Lions Are”
3 VIMANA
Right of the bat, we have taken flight. Thought can do that. S. Sundar invites us in for a sweet quirky slight of hand ride into the sky. Maybe you didn’t know that there are floating and flying houses called “Vimana” in tradition and folklore and in the sky (of course).
This aerial ballet has the sly dance qualities of a Bollywood unison dance in the temple of the mind. Storms joins in with a chordal chat and a vocal quality to his bass that has a lyrical quality once owned by the transcendent jazz master from Weather Report.
D. Wood’s guitar takes chameleon forms throughout the album. Sometimes his contributions are so varied and subtle that I miss them. Everybody in this chamber group supports the other with one voice like a string quartet by Ives, Bartok or Carter. There are no “showboats” in the ensemble, and the music is largely written to ensure equanimity and focus.
Fly Captain fly upon your Mystery Ship!
Storms – Bass
D Wood – Guitar
S Shivkumar – Violin
S Sundar – Mirdangam
4 DREAM WITHIN A DREAM
"In a night, or in a day,In a vision, or in none,Is it therefore the less gone?All that we see or seemIs but a dream within a dream."—Edgar Allan Poe from the poem “A Dream Within A Dream”
We are in Inception territory here, but it is sweet and never scary. The voices here are having some fun, and the disorientation they embody is a joy like at the side show of a roadside attraction. The journey of mindfulness has reached a comfortable place. Everybody is having some fun.
Storms – Bass
D Wood – Guitar
S Shivkumar – Violin
S Sundar – Mirdangam
JT Lewis – Drums
Invocation
An address to a deity or muse that often takes the form of a request for help in composing the poem at hand. Invocations can occur at the beginning of the poem or start of a new canto; they are considered conventions of the epic form and are a type of apostrophe. See the opening of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Alexander Pope mocked the convention in the first canto of “The Rape of the Lock.” A contemporary example is Denise Levertov’s poem “Invocation.”
5 INVOCATION
That definition from the Poetry Foundation says it right. This is an opening, a mouth, the doorway, etc. In meditation at my very best, the opening comes for me near the end, and it doesn’t end when I return to my day. That is what this song is about. This is the point when everything that follows can be seen from point of view of the vastness of AUM. This is the point when we can all take a moment to dance at the brink of eternity. It is the view from above. I want to, I want to, I want to take you HIGHER. Boom laka laka laka Boom. My life seems to flow better in that view from above.
Storms – Bass
D Wood – Guitar
S Shivkumar – Violin
S Sundar – Mirdangam
6 MUMBAI TRAIN TRACKS
We have a visiting Mirdangam player. P. Suresh has a different voice on the Mirdangam. He is also a storyteller in rhythm. S. Sundar has a lovely voice of his own, but this new perspective is welcome. It’s a family affair.
"Mom loves the both of themYou see, it's in the bloodBoth kids are good to MomBlood's thicker than the mudIt's a family affair (it's a family affair)It's a family affair (it's a family affair)"—Sly Stone from “It’s A Family Affair"
P Suresh – Mirdangam
7 WHERE RIVERS MEET
"The open mouths of rivers where they join the sea.The places where water comes togetherwith other water. Those places stand outin my mind like holy places."From Raymond Carver’s poem called:"where water comes together with other water"
S. Shivkumar’s violin voice gets quiet and slows down a touch to evoke the convocation of waters. This combining ballad feels mythic throughout. There is wisdom here. This is wisdom literature in sound. Once again, D. Wood sings his support like a wind in the trees. S. Sundar and JT Lewis speak with one rhythmic voice like water flowing together! An improvisation could hit all the points along this journey of a song, but it would take too long. This chamber group tells the story with concision and subtle grace.
Storms – Bass
D Wood – Guitar
S Shivkumar – Violin
S Sundar – Mirdangam
JT Lewis – Drum Kit Percussion
"Brahman or the Supreme Self is beyond time and space, causation.He is limitless. He is tranquil. He shines with equal effulgence inall bodies. He cannot be any particular thing."—Quoted from Divine Life Society
8 BRAHMA SHLOKA
“BRAHMA SHLOKA"brahmārpaṇaṃ brahma haviḥ brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam .brahmaiva tena gaṃtavyaṃ brahmakarma samādhinā ..Any means of offering is Brahman, the oblation is Brahman, the fire in which the offering is made is Brahman, and the one who offers is Brahman. Such a person who abides in Brahman indeed gains Brahman.”—Storms from a chat with Billy on Messenger
This album which started with young Devi’s disarming voice, could not end any other way. Once again, with a different mantra, her subtle voice permeates the crude. Resistence to such honest song is futile. Her voice gets in before you have time to shut the door.
Devi Giannetti – Voice
Recorded at Bodhi Tree Studios – Mumbai
Recording Engineer – Storms
Mixed at Bodhi Tree Studios – Mumbai (Songs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8)
Engineer – Storms
Also recorded and Mixed at – Studio K – New York (Songs 4 and 8)
Engineer – Carlos Pereira
Mastered at Double D Music Inc – New York
Mastering Engineer – David Darlington
All Tracks Written and Produced by Storms and D Wood
Mix and Mastering Consultant – Brian Bacchus
Cover Art – Devi Giannetti
LINKS
The Indica Project (Website)
Storms
Storms has worked as bassist, singer and producer. Also as composer and producer/engineer for TV, Radio and Film projects.
Co-founded the Indica Project with American musician D Wood.
Collaborated with and recorded as a session musician with Talvin Singh, Point Records, The Master Musicians of Jajouka, Flying Rhino Records in London.
Worked with Greg Osby, Tony Cedras, J.T. Lewis, Morris Goldberg, Cyro Baptista and Bob Weiner Paula Braga, Cafe, Ron Miles, Bashir Athar, Sabine Kabongo, Dafnis Prieto, Udo Demandt, and Edsel Gomez.
Performed and recorded in India, including with A.R.Rehman, Vishal Shekhar, Salim Suleman, Shankar Mahadevan, Louis Banks, Ranjit Barot, Sriram Iyer, Divya, Lezz Lewis, Roy Venkatraman, Loy Mendonca, Ehsaan Noorani, Ronu Mazumdar and others.
Collaborated with Protima Gauri Bedi and the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble. Performed at the Vasantahabha Festival in Bangalore, 1996.
Collaborated with Dutch musicians Ben Van Dan Dungen, Eric Hoeke, and Wiboud Burkens in Jazz/World Project also featuring Dhanashree Pandit on vocals and Sunilkant Gupta on flute. Has a solo album, “Always Here” featuring Dhanashree Pandit Rai, Ashwin Srinivasan, Manas Kumar, Pramod Nair, and Sanjay Divecha.
Worked as a voice-over and singing artist in over 3000 TV commercials in India. Also did the music for the film Loins of Punjab directed by Manish Acharya.
D Wood
Robert Giannetti aka D. Wood has been a professional musician since his graduation from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in the late 70s.
His musical studies brought him to the British Isles, West Africa, and to India as a Fulbright scholar.
He co-founded The Indica Project with India-based producer Storms, aka Sanjay Swamy, and has since then created a formidable body of work.
The Indica Project has brought together musicians from India, Africa, NYC, and Latin America resulting in a fresh, exciting contemporary sound.
Wood currently lives in India performing, producing, and teaching.
Presently he is a faculty member at Whistling Woods International in Mumbai.
Email: billymwb@gmail.com
Submissions accepted. Send a link, not a CD. Lyrics and artwork plus any information is appreciated. Access to artists for interviews encouraged.
