Shayan By Charu Suri

 

Shayan

By

Charu Suri

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

The beauty of an album can sometimes be its tone, its insightfulness, perhaps its production and compositional structures, then from time to time we are gifted a release dedicated to the wellbeing of another, or others, this new album from the artist Charu Suri is without doubt something wonderfully special, from the genesis of genius to the world as a panacea of peace, to help one and all, a veritable musical experience given to humanity, as a pathway to healing and blissful rest, can there be a higher calling?

Shayan is a 7 track release, the 5^th from the Queen of Raga Jazz, one that blends the effects of ancient healing Raga’s, into the mix of some of the most ambient and cathartic instrumental music that you are ever likely to hear.

Our opening composition is a wonderful piece of great quality, and one that shines so brightly, and of course is our title track Shayan. I have heard many sublime healing based albums in my life, but here is one whose intent and exquisiteness glows like the northern lights upon its textured musical horizon, the harp of Peter Sterling was a most gracious addition to the overall arrangement as was the delightful cello of Tess Remy-Schumacher.

Mohanan Hymn has the honour of following in the paths of the previous moment of genius, this is a prime example of a musical horse of a different colour, the composition contains the brilliance of a man whom I seem to be constantly writing about lately in the realm of the master of acoustic guitars very own Jim Kimo West and once again the delightful cello of Tess Remy-Schumacher which was played with so much heart. The narrative was a true mixture of west meets east on one of the most fascinating pieces from the release.

The production quality of this entire album was on another level entirely, tracks like Inner Peace with the vibrant piano segments and authentic eastern instrumentation, gifted us very eager listeners something almost transcendent to bathe within, in a style that created an anthem like feel, whilst the creation entitled Raga Jog brought a desirable atmospheric meditative energy into the proceedings, and reminded me of Laraaji’s Day of Radiance album from 1980, the depth of the string movements will bring the listener to a new level of peace and tranquillity.

Charu Suri shows on this next creation just why she is an award winning pianist, Nightingale is with ease one of my favourite tracks from the album, and the symbiotic partnership she garners with the legend that is Jim Kimo West is simply astonishing, one could with ease imagine the tone and timbre of this piece alone merging into a pastiche of colour that would transfix anyone, and move them into a willing and happy resting state.

Raga Durga is amazingly our penultimate track from the album, the piano of the artist is the main focus here, creating an almost Pachelbel tonal delight, whilst dancing with the multi-instrumental textures of the overall musical narrative, the floating movement is so palpable, and mixes a wonderful eastern motif into a willing western influence.

The concluding piece is Shayan the Reprise of the opening composition, but one that adds the genius of the Venezuela String Recording Ensemble, and another man whose musical aptitude has crossed my path in flautist Ron Korb. Here the team bring the whole project together for this final resolution, and in doing so round the musical circle to bring to a close one of the most beautiful healing albums I have heard for decades.

Shayan by Charu Suri is one of those globally fused albums that literally everyone should have in their collections and be proud they have done so; each piece is crafted with care and good intentions by Charu and her band of willing cohorts, the result is an album of outstanding natural beauty, a gift of peace and serenity to all who need it, and a veritable sonic journey of natural rhythm.

So let’s list that line-up of artists who appear on the album with Charu Suri and give them the recognition they all deserve: Jim Kimo West (guitar), Tess Remy-Schumacher (cello), Premik Russell Tubbs (flute) Max ZT (dulcimer), Ron Korb (flute), Ranicro Palm (Venezuela String Recording Ensemble), Ravichandra Kulur (flute), Anita Lerche (vocals), Haruna Fukazawa (flute), Philip Vaiman (violin), Peter Sterling (harp), Ramya Ahankar (ukulele), Mary Dawood Catlin (vocals) and last but not least, Siyer (vocals).