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MANTRA MAGIC: MUSIC CD DOWNLOAD
In 2012, I took a sabbatical from teaching to renew myself musically. It had been 13 years since I recorded my last album. Finding a Fender Strat in a music store inspired me to revisit the feel of 70's guitar greats like Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, and Carlos Santana. I had "renounced" this kind of music when I become a monk in India (1984) to study ancient Sanskrit and Indian classical music. Now, I wanted to put them together, my knowledge of mantra with my love of rock and jazz. During my sabbatical, I composed, arranged, performed, and recorded these songs in my Austin studio, playing all instruments except the tabla. Plus I do all the men's voices. Austin tabla maestro, Gauri Shankar, plays tablas. Austin yoga teacher, Sumukhi (Kristina Lazuna) sings the female vocals on all tracks. The whole project took almost two years. The album was finally released in 2014.