Samir Bodhi: Stairway To Nirvana

Traditional Indian instruments and vocals blended with synthesizers, studio effects and electric guitar in an amazing cinematic sounding production. Strong, resonant sounds encourage directed attention on a journey through the stages of life, moving from the mournful to joyful, and eventually ascending to reach enlightenment, engaging with naturally restorative influences.

Vana means "weaving" and nir means "negation," thus Nirvana might be the ending of suffering and the cessation of the weaving of the mind. Swirling in space, it all comes together with hypnotic percussion which picks up in dynamic moments, and then always returning to the open satisfying bliss. The climax offering on the album, the track "Nirvana," brings sparkling electronic effects to complex sarangi sounds while being led by a mystically weeping electric guitar played by Sanjoy Das, with Joydeb Nandy on Sree Khol and tabla. This satisfyingly conclusive track is an instrumental, bringing to account a state of freedom from suffering and rebirth, freedom of mind, release of the heart, attaining a peaceful and clear state of mind, and a desire-less state of living. Brilliantly fusing East Indian classical music and instruments with modern Western music, Indian born musical visionary and tenured professor Samir Bodhi's multi-faceted life and career illuminates the American immigrant experience of thriving in the pursuit of his ambitious dreams.