phenomeNEWS - This Month's Music Review

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s Month's Music Review

by Greg Ozimek
music@wwnet.net

Welcome to your life!

Turiya Nada, Cave of the Siddhars –
Divine Resonance of the realized Sages
Red Lotus Creatives
www.nandhi.com

What the CD album Turiya Nada, Cave of the Siddhars brings to us is an immense portal into the core of our world.

The artist, Nandhi, was fascinated by the spiritual world while growing up in south India. However, it was when he was drawn to or called by one of the Siddhar spiritual masters, that he had a soul awakening.

The Siddhar Ayya initiated Nandhi into the path of Siddha (meaning the attainment of perfection through divine grace)and Nandhi was blessed with the vision of God Himself in the form of the sacred mountain Thiruvannamalai.

Nandhi describes this amazing, transforming vision as “The two eyes immersed in the splendor of splendors, which the mind can only know as the blissful awareness in the state of samadhi, when the third eye opens and sees the universe within with the only experience being indescribable joy beyond comparison.”

Nandhi became immersed in their world and their clear perception of the reality of all life. He became an open vessel for the expression of The Divine through him.

In Turiya Nada, Cave of the Siddhars, Nandhi makes consequential use of the didgerido.

The didg is an Australian aboriginal instrument that creates a drone sound something like the drone component of Scottish bagpipes. The didg, however, is pure drone, modulated a bit by the intonation of the voice of the player. It is a fascinating instrument, to say the least. Nandhi told me, “The didgerido is the only instrument that comes close enough to the sounds of meditation.”

His meditation, the meditation of the enlightened, realized Siddhars, is in the form of a mantra repeated in a never ending continuous loop as long as one has breath from a deep gulp of air; and the next and the next deep breath of air. The mantra is sounded out so rapidly that it becomes as if a blur to a nearby listener. In this way, it reverberates from the essence of the meditator, through his body and throughout the Universe and into all of Creation.

Nandhi utilizes both of these concepts in his enlightening album, Turiya Nada, Cave of the Siddhars. He chants the mantras of the Siddhars of south India while a didgerido sounds out those mantras.

The album builds in four layers, the four tracks of the CD. Each brings the listener up a few notches to the brilliant conclusion in the fourth track where a fuller depth of the Siddhars’ resonance is experienced.

This is not just some typical monk-chanting CD.

Musically, Nandhi has woven real instruments, not synthetic and the chanting human voice in unique, pleasing and spiraling ways. We are led or rather, our heart is led further in and closer to its own reality. The result is at least a CD that can be listened to over and over without any tiresome boredom.

The effect is so endearing that it can be played in a continuous loop all day. One wonders about the effect such looping (Repeat All) of this CD has not only on the listener as he or she walks into that room filled with the mantras and inspired sounds of the Siddhars from the Ages, but also on the angels and spirits of nature that must be drawn to these pure essence vibrations.

Ah, life is good.

Currently, according to Nandhi, Turiya Nada, Cave of the Siddhars is riding a wave into a distribution deal with a major New-Agey distributor. So, until that time when you can purchase Turiya Nada from your favorite music store you need to buy it from either visiting www.nandhi.com or calling (310) 451 7377.

Also, it appears the web site www.nandhi.com and has taken on a life of its own. It is huge. It is an educational experience in its own right (a must see).

And while it may not be mentioned there, Nandhi told me each piece of artwork was painted in a maximum time of 45 minutes, after his morning meditation, which is incredible – you’ll know it when you see them!

Life is good.

Life is what you make of it!

Notes on Our Bard of Hildegard von Bingen
Norma Gentile
www.normagentile.com

Yesterday, Norma’s name came up in an email conversation with a long time friend in New York City, Shepherd Hoodwin.

Shepherd created such an interest that today I visited Gentile’s web site (www.normagentile.com) and was surprised at the amazing body of work she has undertaken. Foremost, she is a magnificent vocal scholar of the musical works of Hildegard von Bingen, a woman from the early 1100s who was an anchor dedicated to God from the first days of her earthly life.

Norma’s vocals (and recordings in three CDs) of Hildegard’s Gregorian chants have healing qualities as reported by her audiences and listeners to her CDs.

I have a vocalist friend who is considering doing her PhD next year, on “sound healing.” I said, “WHAT’s THAT?” (to do scholarly work and write a thesis, I meant) and she buzzed around a bit, explaining.

Norma Gentile is a pioneer in many ways. We look forward to more exceptional vocal music from her studio.