Indian-origin British artist Radhika Vekaria turns to the mainstays of Indian devotional and religious music for her new album Warriors of Light, giving widely-chanted prayers a deeply private rendition that yearns for inside power and peace of thoughts.
The spacey, new age album sees Vekaria on vocals (in Sanskrit, Hindi, Tamil and English) and piano staff up with producer George Landress, flautist Shashank Acharya, hammered dulcimer artist Max ZT, sarod artist Pratik Shrivastava, tabla artist Alok Verma and others. Everything from “Asato Ma Sadgamaya” to the “Maha Mrityunjaya” mantra and “Hanuman Chalisa” are given an atmospheric model, fitted with spoken phrase and sung English components in addition to Vekaria taking on Sanskrit, Tamil (“Aganitha Tara”) and Hindi chants. Sure, her accent just isn’t all the time precisely Indian sufficient to do justice to the chants, however the essence of spirituality stays robust on Warriors of Light, which additionally has “Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram,” “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu” and “Release Your Fears (Jaya Jaya Durge Ma).”
Vekaria sums up her intention as an artist, “I do not make music for you to see me. I make it for you to see yourself.” Born in Africa to Indo-British mother and father and now residing within the U.S., Vekaria provides in a assertion that she’s all the time been daybreak to mantras, “Vedic sciences and my ancestral lineage.” She says, “Much like a tree, my roots have provided strength and resilience, guiding me through life’s storms.”
Acknowledging the “generational histories” that she’s reconciled being of African, Indian and British lineage, Vekaria notes that she was “nurtured” by Indian devotional music even earlier than she may converse. As somebody who has “grappled with a chronic speech impediment” that lowered her talking talents, Vekaria says it was in these “darkest moments” that she “discovered the transformative power of ancient sounds.” She provides in a assertion, “The resonance of Sanskrit and Tamil mantras became my allies, their vibrations a bridge to a deeper truth and state of being. These were not just words but potent sounds imbued with the wisdom and strength of millennia. They became my warriors, each chant a beacon of light piercing through the darkness. The silence finally began to release me.”
Warriors of Light is her second album after 2020’s debut album Sapta: The Seven Ways. Vekaria went on to grow to be the primary mantra artist to carry out at SXSW in Austin, Texas in 2022. “I presented an immersive dome show that resonated deeply with diverse listeners,” she says.
Coming up subsequent, she’s heading to carry out at Harvard University, in collaboration with NASA-JPL astrophysicist Dr. Nicholas Siegler at a symposium this month. Indian-origin wellness and spirituality determine Deepak Chopra has additionally referred to as on Vekaria previously, for opening and shutting an internet meditation for peace with music and chanting initially of the Ukraine-Russia warfare.
Vekaria will even carry out with Grammy-winning violinist Nathalie Bonin on Sept. 20 in California, adopted by a set on the Grammy Museum on Sept. 29.
