Bliss Bubble Music Review
Sangeeta Kaur: Compassion
(Review in LA Yoga Magazine, January 2020)
Compassion is Sangeeta Kaur’s fourth and latest New Age/Classical crossover album.
With a background as a trained opera singer, kundalini yogini, songwriter, and producer, this multi-talented Vietnamese American artist co-created her latest offering with musician, composer, and producer, Nicolas Neidhardt, to impressive results. Combining sacred chants, uplifting English songs, and vocalizations set to soothing instrumentation, listening to Compassion is the perfect prescription to help heal a multitude of the world’s current ails for yourself, each other, and all sentient beings.
Kaur worked with the Hungarian Studio Orchestra, the Hungarian Studio Choir, Sterling Ensemble, as well as Duy Tran and Danaë Vlasse, who contribute choral compositions. The result is angelic music that’s nourishment for the soul. Kaur and Neidhardt’s production is flawless, ranging from grandly cinematic to dreamily intimate. Sangeeta’s vocals shine with elegant purity, simultaneously conveying a heartfelt vulnerability. Choir vocals are skillfully added throughout, creating awe-inspiring sacredness that left me feeling a sense of holy wonder.
“Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha,” a Tibetan Buddhist chant of compassion to honor the bodhisattva, Green Tara, is the perfect opening song. The other Tibetan Buddhist song included on Compassion is, “Om Vajra Sattva Hum.” This mantra of the bodhisattva, Vajrasattva, purifies the mind, body, and speech, opening connection—One Mind—to all the Buddhas. “Rise Up” and “Song of Compassion” offer gentle inspiration and hope with lyrics in English. “Transcendence” and “Voices and Crystals” are perfect for savasana and relaxation with their ethereal vocals and sublime musical accompaniment. “We Are One,” a song of vocalizations set to orchestral music, invokes a sense of the collective gathering together in unity as the vocalizations build in sync with the swell of the orchestra in a grand fashion. “May the Long Time Sun,” the standard closing song sung by all at any kundalini yoga class, is sweet and sublime with Sangeeta and Nicolas’s unique arrangement of Mike Heron’s original song.
“Transcendence” and “Sa Re Sa Sa” are my two picks for standout tracks. “Transcendence” has a lullaby vibe that could tame even the fiercest emotional tigers which can arise in so many of us during stressful times. “Sa Re Sa Sa,” a kundalini yoga mantra to remove negativity and obstacles, thus clearing the way for creativity, peace, and higher consciousness is absolutely divine. Compassion closes with “Voices of Compassion,” a satisfying choral medley of highlights from the album.
Read this review at LA Yoga Magazine here.