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| Reviews: Dakshina |
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"On her fourth recording of gorgeous sacred chants, Deva Premal offers an exquisitely beautiful and moving CD which showcases her unparalleled voice. Surrounded by world class musicians, and with production to match, Deva Premal again shows why she is the one by whom all others are measured. |
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"Dakshina's rich tapestry of layered voices and luxuriant sounds is the perfect sanctuary for accessing our inner wisdom and honoring the divine truth that resides within each of us. Absolutely transcendent." |
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- Lloyd Barde, Backroads Music |
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“Deva Premal continues to entrance listeners with her rich, velvety voice on Dakshina, another album of intensely beautiful mantras and chants from the popular songstress. Staying true to form, each track seems to literally flow into the next, as Premal's voice is bathed in a mystical atmosphere of harmonium, light tabla beats, synthesizer ambiance, and other regional instruments.
“The album is both ethereal and warmly serene (it's not surprising that she's been referrred to as the 'Enya of Mantra'), and coupled with the repetitive and meditative nature of Premal's chants, it has an amazingly hypnotic effect. Among the mantras she tackles are the ever popular Om Namah Shivaya as well as Brahma Nandam and Om Hraum.” |
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- Music Design In Review, May/June 2005 |
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"Experts say that, used correctly, the human voice is capable of great healing, and German-born mantra singer Deva Premal has taken those innate abilities to the top of the new age charts for years.
“Working with her musical partner, Miten, the soothing, low-toned vocalist has had private audiences with the Dalai Lama, and has worked with celebrities from motivational speaker Tony Robbins to Cher. The soothing and hypnotic eight tracks of Dakshina will no doubt prove another triumph with Premal's base of yoga students, therapists, and alternative health practitioners.
“It begins with the contemplative, somewhat mournful, and simply produced Om Hraum before expanding in scope with the richer harmonies and instrumentation of Om Namah Shivaya. Other tracks like Homage To Krishna and Guru Rinpoche Mantra slowly and beautifully blend dreamy ambiences with rich, ultra-soulful vocal textures. The sweet taste of India abounds in the instrumentation throughout, making this a geographic as well as inner spiritual journey." |
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- Jonathan Widran, All Music Guide |
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| Listener’s Comments: |
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“Your wonderful CD arrived today... there should now be a law passed that everyone should play this in their cars... no more road rage !!!!... also speakers erected on our highways filling our hearts and minds with the gift of love....no more aggro !!... I am walking about with a big smile, maybe I will cancel my trip to Cornwall and Scotland which I thought necessary to escape the cloud... your beautiful sounds reach into my marrow...” |
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“Dakshina is just so lush and lovely and full of graceful spirals of joy and silence...” |
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“Dakshina feels like such a maturity. That is really the one word that keeps coming to me. Maturity. It really comes through. Not some kind of message, like love is, or devotion, or surrender - nothing like that - for me, at least - just simply the integrity of Being. Just the strength of yourself expressed. it is so powerful that Truth, that Being. The nobility of Self. That is enough and everything...!” |
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“I must have played Dakshina 30 times already! I just can’t get enough of it...” |
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“Again and again I listen to this music. Enjoying it. Drinking it. Sometimes it fills me like the sound of the earth. Sometimes it sweeps through me like a light breeze, sometimes it reminds me of joys on far away shores. Soothing. Comforting. Calming. Quenching the heart. A new level of subtleness and devotion. Very delicately orchestrated. Sweet, beta-waves of ecstasy...” |
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“I have kept in touch with you via your website but felt I had to write to say how unbelievable Dakshina is! I fall in love each moment with each note with each breath! Ahhh! I've spent the weekend with your voices and Bollywood strings --- it helped me to open my heart even more and to move me into the needed space to create a healing program I've been longing to do for so long...” |
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“This music it's sooo HIGH! It makes me fly... moving towards the light, toward who we truly are...now and forever. I'll bathe with you in the ever-changing moment every time I'll listen to it.. |
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“I would like to thanks, to have produced that wonderful CD. It is magnificent to listen it. Bravo!!...” |
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“Rich, beautiful, full, divine....words pale...” |
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“Congratulations Deva & Miten, absolutely beautiful - - - fantastic - - - masterful - - - and full of the master. I love it - - - of course I'm talking about Dakshina - - it's so gorgeous. This CD has gone to a whole other level in maturity, production, refinement and depth. Everything about it is great - the performances, the arrangements, the recording and mix quality, the cover - - everything. The vocals are divine...” |
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“I hear Dakshina every day...!” |
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“Congratulations on your new album. Pearls after pearls, complex arrangements, enlightening and deepening........ and what a Om Namah Shivaya! Or Hommage To Krishna..... Thank you Premal .......you are a singer for God..calling and honouring again and again. The Beloved...Osho, Krishna, and all the goddesses who embodied and gave their lives for the greater ........and remembering human mankind of their destiny..and Home. What a gift you bring...!” |
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I hope you both have been able to rest & restore this summer after your wonderful U.S. Tour. I saw you in New York City at your last engagement of the tour. It was blessed, healing, &, as always, joyful. I never thought your concert at St. John the Divine Cathedral could be "topped"... for lack of a better term - not that any of your concerts or CDs can be compared to each other. They're all so precious & individual (like the two of you!) But this space (The NY Society For Ethical Culture) seemed to be tailor-made for you.
It was magical & more intimate. Oh, & the rose petals everywhere! I got the chance to speak at length to Miten during the break... for that moment, I am forever grateful as I am for the music you both have joyfully & generously given to the world...
And the story continues!
Five years ago, I had surgery to have an ovarian cyst removed. When my doctor 'went in', he also found four fibroids (non-cancerous tumors) that he also removed. The operation was successful. My surgeon was sure that the cyst was benign, but the biopsy of the cyst came back positive a few weeks later. Still, I was thankful to still have my ovaries despite my doctor's misgivings. Lots of praying & meditating resulted... The message I kept getting was that I was fine & no further surgery or treatment was needed. Further tests came back negative. That was the beginning of an accelerated spiritual odyssey that led me to examine every area of my life & make big changes. This is when I gave up the music biz (at least the way I was going about it), & So Much Magnificence came into my life pointing me in a new direction....
A year after the surgery in 2002, my doctor told me that the fibroids had returned. I was crestfallen but relieved that they were non-cancerous. Not wanting to have another operation, I decided to take charge of my health & threw myself into alternative therapies. I also meditated & slowly became aware of the spiritual reason for this imbalance. I was not surprised to discover that my fibroids were the result of blocked creativity - channeling my energy into a job, pursuits, & relationships that drain me. Slowly, I made changes - but the most difficult area for me to change was my creativity which still seemed frozen. I was still holding back due to fear.
Over the past three years, the fibroids grew. In July, I went to a new female gynecologist who shook me awake. My uterus was now the size of a six month pregnancy! No wonder people were offering me seats on the subway! There were other symptoms that had become unmanageable as well, like profusive bleeding, anemia, & depression. Around this time, I fell down the stairs in the subway & broke my arm. While I was recuperating from that, I found out that my dead-end job was truly ending. By the end of this year, I will be laid-off. YOW! Kali had surely stepped into my life in a big way!
I surrendered, surrendered, & surrendered more. The divine messages I received were awesome. I was shown the areas in my life where I was still holding on, holding back, & hiding. My creativity was still stuck. I was "told" to write a book... my memoir, which would chronicle my unique spiritual journey & be accompanied by a CD of music that I will eventually record. That was a shock! I had always loved singing & writing, but never saw myself writing a book (much less a memoir). Although my ego/mind put up quite a fight, my Spirit surrendered. It felt right. So, I began....
In August, I decided to have a hysterectomy. After lots of praying & meditation, I realized that this wasn't a "failure" & that there could actually be healing through surgery. This was a huge revelation for me! I determined that this surgery would be quite different from the one in 2001 when I experienced so much terror in the operating room just before being put under general anesthesia. I asked my ob/gyn if she would play Dakshina in the operating room. She seemed a little surprised by the request, but was more than happy to oblige.
It was never a question of which CD would join me in my healing journey through surgery. I knew it had to be one of yours, Deva, & it had to be Dakshina. Your glorious voice uplifts & soothes me--it always has. You, Miten, Praful, & the other musicans created a very special alchemy when you all joined forces to record Dakshina. I don't know exactly what it is about this CD... it's as if my entire being goes "aaaahhhhhh!!!!" when I hear those beginning strains of Om Hraum Mitraya...not to mention Aad Guray which either seems to send me flying into the stars or floating down a gentle mountain stream. Magic, pure magic!
Fast forward six weeks... on October 5th, 2005, I was being wheeled into the operating room clutching my copy of Dakshina like a child would hold a teddy bear. I did feel like the Divine Child of the Goddess for I was surrendering it all to Her. I knew She would protect me. I felt safe & at peace. I didn't see a CD player in the operating when I got there. So, a nurse went & found one. The nurses & doctors swarmed around me, talking to me gently & assuring me that all would go well. Then... those delicious opening chords & Premal's sweet voice, "Ooooooooooom Hraum Mitraya..." My whole body smiled... & in seconds the general anesthesia swept me away into its spacious dream.
When I awoke, the first thing I saw was the clock which read 8:00 pm... 8:00?!!! I knew something had gone wrong. I went in at 1:00, & it was only supposed to be a three hour operation. My doctor was right there &, in her soft, gentle voice, she informed me that they had found "something" on my left ovary which they had removed & biopsied. The biopsy came back positive for the same cancer I had been diagnosed with in 2001! I was in shock!!! Yet, she assured me, this kind of cancer (Adult Granulosa) was the "best kind of ovarian cancer" I could get because it was slow growing & didn't tend to spread, grow back after surgery, or require other treatment. In fact, the cancer had encapsulated itself & looked like a hard nut attached to the ovary. As a result, it was quite easy to remove.
The ways of Body & Spirit are mysterious & miraculous! To think that my immune system had isolated the malignancy like that to keep it from spreading is amazing! So, my doctor & the oncologist she had called in decided that I could keep my other ovary (which would prevent me from going into "instant menopause"). They also biopsied my lymph nodes to see if it had spread. It would take a week to get those results back.
Deva & Miten, I can't even begin to tell you the mix of emotion I felt: joy, fear, relief, anxiety, shock...I went through it all. Despite & because of it all, I felt this inner joy & peace bursting inside of me. I had never, ever felt such a sense of well being & vitality. Within an hour after a seven hour surgery, I was talking & laughing away... my doctor said that she & the other doctors & nurses had deeply enjoyed Dakshina, which they kept repeating (per my request). But after a while, she said, they had to turn it off because she thought she might fall asleep! Still, they all appreciated the peace, Spirit, & healing it brought into the operating room.
No one appreciated it more than me! I know your music has everything to do with why I'm doing so well now. My best friend who lives in Encinitas, California was unable to be with me, but decided to listen to Dakshina during the entire time I was in surgery! That first night in the hospital after the surgery was difficult. I couldn't sleep at all because my mind kept obsessively going over the "what if's" (what if I have cancer?, etc...). I stopped it through chanting "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" hoping it would open me up to receive healing & peace. And it did! I felt such a presence of Spirit that told me I would be fine & to believe. This is my greatest challenge: to have faith, instead of giving into my ever-doubting mind! But that night, I surrendered to the All One... my fear, doubt, worry, anxiety, & pain. The peace & joy that came in was something I'll never forget.
A week ago, the biopsy results came back, & I am cancer-free! YAY!!! Now I'm home recuperating. My days are filled with creating more Light & Space in my life. Most nights, I sit in my living room with all my candles lit, chanting to your CD's. Each day, I get stronger. My doctor is astounded by my recovery. I spend a great deal of the time crying for joy. I see the miracle of my life now--in the small & large. Like Miten, I feel like I've been given a Second Chance. I am truly blessed!
So, once again... thank you, Deva & Miten, for your gift of music that helped me through a very difficult time & continues to heal me every day. Feel free to share any part of this story with others. I hope it encourages them to find new paths of healing in a patriarchal world. Imagine if all patients had their doctors play your music in the operating room! Perhaps, one day, we will find that this current health system in the West has gone the way of the dinosaur. I will hold that vision!
In Gratitude, Light, & Love,
P.S. Please come back to New York soon! |
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