From the category archives:

music

Sanctuary by Donna De Lory

April 29, 2010

Another highly-recommended yoga album:

From DonnaDeLory.com

Singer and songwriter Donna De Lory has always followed divergent musical roads. The petite, vivacious brunette with the mighty voice happily dallied in the mainstream as Madonna’s sassy tour sidekick for over a decade, but her own parallel journey as a solo artist follows a more eclectic muse. A devoted student of yoga and spiritual teachings, De Lory’s lushly conceived solo albums, like her 2009 ecstatic groove Sanctuary, are not only inspired by Western pop, but Indian devotional music, Sanskrit mantras, Northern African grooves, psychedelic arrangements, and dance beats. Donna blends her rich spiritual practice, sonic collages and diverse musical inspirations into a unique, world music-meets-kirtan style that’s been called “the perfect combination of earth Mama and fairy child, with a voice that oscillates between the passionate laments of Janis Joplin and the crystal clarity of Enya.”

“Playing music is my yoga,” says De Lory. “It’s my bliss. When I play, I get lost in the music, my mind stops, I am in the moment and I am free. This is a place I never want to leave.”

Buy on Amazon.com

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Yoga Revolution: Volume One

April 28, 2010

Amazon.com:

Peace. Harmony. Connection.

The music of YOGA REVOLUTION transports listeners to a beautiful ethereal garden, as if they are peacefully practicing yoga on a warm sunny day, listening to a trickling stream and soothing background music. It helps bring a connection with our inner spirit and one another.
Everyday anxiety, pressure and stress are inescapable parts of modern life and many look for balance by practicing yoga.
YOGA REVOLUTION features 14 original songs specifically selected for yoga exercise by today’s top artists including Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Seal and Ziggy Marley. Songs include: ‘Long Time Sun,’ ‘Salala,’ ‘Sea Dreamer,’ ‘I Shall Believe,’ ‘I Am/ and ‘Prayer of St. Francis.’

EarthTones Music

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Heart as Wide as the World by Krishna Das

April 27, 2010

Amazon.com

As the best selling chant artist of all time, Krishna Das has sold more than 300,000 records, and continues to engage enthusiastic audiences around the world. He has headlined venues from concert halls to yoga studios for sold out crowds of 1,500 in cities across America,throughout Europe and most recently in South America. He has been recording his popular and much-beloved CDs of devotional Indian Chants since 1996.

Renowned for making kirtan chant more accessible to Westerners, Krishna Das, has been called the “chant master of American Yoga” by The New York Times, and the “Pavarotti of Kirtan” by Yoga Journal. His groundbreaking music is energized with modern grooves and harmonies to create a soulful practice that is eminently accessible to modern hearts, while staying true to the path of Bhakti Yoga.

Heart as Wide as the World includes all brand new chants and is Krishna Das’ first album recorded entirely in the studio in more than 10 years. A collaboration with acclaimed producer David Nichtern it also includes musician Jerry Marotta on drums & percussion and an array of unique instruments including the dotar, tablas,esraj and bansuri flute.

KrishnaDas.comLyrics/Liner Notes

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Dharma Gypsys ~ Zeppelin and Floyd meet Krishna Das

April 26, 2010

Described elsewhere as “Zeppelin and Floyd meet Krishna Das,” Dharma Gypsys just might be the ticket to musical enlightenment you’ve been seeking for a long time. When I say musical enlightenment, you know what I’m talking about. Some yoga music rocks, and some just plain sucks. We must avoid sucky yoga music at all costs. Dharma Gypsys, however, is so far on the opposite end of the suck spectrum it’s not even funny. Seriously.

I happened across the group’s apparently only album earlier this evening while browsing twitter posts and haven’t stopped listening. Did I mention this stuff is incredibly good? I might sleep with my headphones on tonight…

The full title of the album is “Volume One: Music for Yoga, Meditation and General House Cleaning.”

A little info about Dharma Gypsys from the album notes:

Daniel Overberger’s Dharma Gypsys is the unlikely, inevitable result of two lifetimes crossing. After years of playing guitar, touring Europe with death rock bands and producing songs for film and television, Daniel wound up ditching it all to go to India, study yoga, perform kirtan and become a yoga teacher. As he got deeper into kirtan and chanting, one question kept coming up: “Where are the guitar solos?”

Dharma Gypsys was a labor of love and inspiration born from Daniel’s vision of joining kirtan and rock music, like some kind of Shiva Frankenstein. It began to show signs of life when he met singer Katrina Chester at one of his yoga classes. From that point on, the Dharma Gypsys was an unstoppable force.

In my humble opinion, unstoppable force might be an understatement. Can’t wait for Volume Two.

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Download and listen to the entire album on lala.com
Also available on Amazon.com

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