New CD by Chaitanya Hari for the festive season, reviewed by Bhagawati
Celebration of Light
Music for Winter and the Christmas Season
by Deuter
New Earth Records
Links to purchase and stream: newearthrecords.com
Sitting in the sweltering tropics at this time of the year, snow and Christmassy images are far removed from my reality. Nevertheless, when I heard about Chaitanya Hari’s CD ‘Celebration of Light’, just recently released as “an offering for the holiday season”, I was curious and started listening.
Taking in the first few sounds of In Dulci Jubilo I already felt transported to another realm – his flute! And then track after track with melodies stirring my heart, long forgotten German songs such as ‘Leise rieselt der Schnee’ bringing back childhood joys of hearing the silence of snow having fallen during the night, and his composition ‘Frozen Waters’ conveying the sensation of ice crystals; the marvelous Spagnoletta with its joyful tinkling had me up and dancing! And as always, Charles Gounod’s Ave Maria had a profound effect on my state of being. And yes, light – always.
Chaitanya’s take on old devotional European music and songs is beautifully and meditatively rendered here with him playing not only flute but also harp, french horn and keyboard. This CD will no doubt become another classic.
Chaitanya Hari (Georg Deuter) was born in Germany in 1945 and has been acclaimed as the founder of New Age music. He took sannyas in 1973 and created the music for all the meditations Osho devised before 1981. In the forty years of his career as a musician he composed 70 albums; his studio and home are in Santa Fe, NM.
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