Artists Deva Premal and Miten Bio: They met in India in 1990 and soon began a journey into love and creativity that has taken their inspiring blend of song, mantra and meditation to a worldwide audience. They have released a string of acclaimed CDs with international sales of nearly one million, and their concerts and ecstatic chant workshops are met with rave reviews throughout Europe, Australia, South America, Canada and the United States.
Their music transcends all the usual musical boundaries, with fans including rock icon Cher, who featured one of Deva’s most popular chants, the Gayatri Mantra, on her Farewell Concert Tour; world renowned author and motivational coach Tony Robbins, and even His Holiness The Dalai Lama who, after hearing Deva & Miten sing for a private audience, exclaimed, “Beautiful music, beautiful…!” Best selling author Eckhart Tolle notes:“As you listen to the music of Deva and Miten, the sacred space that lies beyond the mind emerges naturally and effortlessly. Pure magic.” http://www.devapremalmiten.com/
Artist Bio: Manose’s hometown, Boudha, Nepal, stands on the ancient route leading from the Himalayan mountains down into the Kathmandu valley.It is just upriver from Nepal’s most holy Hindu temple, and is home itself to an important Buddhist shrine. An influx of Tibetan refugees who congregated around the great Boudhanath shrine, and the outward growth of Kathmandu city has created there a nexus where everyone from religious pilgrims, to enclaves of traders, and Western adventurers converged to meet, mingle, haggle, and gawk. It is dusty and colourful, a Babylon of languages and traditions.
Here eight-year-old Manose fell in love with the bamboo flute one night when a fortuitous breeze wafted its song through his bedroom window. Manose’s real relationship with music began when Manose heard about an old man who played the shenai. That man, Madan Dev Bhatta, a disciple of Ustad Bishmillah Khan, initiated Manose into the study of classical raga music, often known as North Indian classical music.
CD: Songs for the Sangha offers a loving invitation to move from the daily rush of “doing” into deeper realms of simply “being.” Play it driving to work, play it cooking dinner, play it in your yoga studio, in the bedroom, or in your ear buds as you walk down city streets. The music is there to support and entice – as the beautiful Rumi poem featured in the final track says, “Draw near, draw near and I will whisper in your ear, the name whose radiance makes the spheres to dance. OM…”
Deva Premal & Miten’s extraordinary new album, Songs for the Sangha, weaves ancient mantras with songs celebrating inner journeys, melding many different musical and spiritual traditions in a joyous flow.
Deva & Miten are joined as always by Nepalese bansuri maestro Manose, along with Canadian multi-instrumentalist & Grammy-nominated record producer Joby Baker, and noted UK keyboard wizard Spencer Cozens (John Martyn-Joan Armatrading). Together, they create a unique soundscape, moving with fearless grace between Indian chant motifs, Western classical piano riffs, swampy reggae grooves and rich soul/jazz inflections.
“Any time a new album from Deva Premal and Miten surfaces it is a reason to celebrate. Their gentle, contemplative music is very heart-centric, offering the listener an oasis of spiritual peace for meditation and relaxation practices. SONGS FOR THE SANGHA follows suit. With this release, the pair is joined by Nepalese flutist Manose, keyboard maestro Spencer Cozens and producer Joby Baker for a musical journey filled with chant, uplifting spiritual folk music and cross-cultural influences…. The smooth interplay between Premal and Miten is the album’s centerpiece; their smooth, low-toned voices blending beautifully against Manose’s bright, airy flute tones.” -Music Design, June 2015
CD: Password Deva’s enchanting new CD, Password, was created with Miten and Manose at the end of their 2010 world tour, and marks an exciting new direction in their unique blending of East and West, embedding the extraordinary energy carried by ancient mantras into a rich fusion of sound and silence. Deva’s golden voice, guided by Miten and The Essence producer Rishi, glides through shining soundscapes created by some of the best young jazz musicians in Europe, offering haunting, seductive invitations to return home to our hearts. As Deva notes, “Mantras are passwords that transform the mundane into the sacred.”
CD: Soul In Wonder sees Miten going back to his roots, combining the rock and blues of his youth with dance rhythms, mantras and heartfelt songs of wood smoke, banyan trees and holy rivers in the moonlight – from a true soul in wonder. Miten’s tales of awakening, discovery & wonder are enhanced by Deva Premal’s divine vocals & the bansuri flute of Manose, along with harmonium, kora, violin, Hammond organ, slide guitar and mandolin.
CD: The Essence Deva Premal’s debut album has become a best-seller in the USA and Europe, and is one of the most popular albums in the New Age world. This top selling New Age/World beat CD is smooth, silky, calming and peaceful and was originally created for those who attended Deva & Miten’s chant workshops. Featuring Deva Premal’s transcendant voice, ambient grooves, keyboard and hand percussion, The Essence invokes the heart healing power of ancient chants and mantras. The Gayatri Mantra, the world’s oldest mantra, known for purification and healing, is the centerpiece of this truly meditative CD.
