Sufi Splendor: Music for Whirling Meditation

by Sufi Splendor

Overview

Like most religions that include a highly detailed and demanding ritual component, Islam has a mystical offshoot, the practitioners of which concern themselves more with achieving an ecstatic union with God than with the close observation of legalistic ritual. One subset of the Sufi sect, known as the Whirling Dervishes, achieves that state of mystical ecstasy by means of a spinning dance, followed by a period of prostrate contemplation. Multi-instrumentalist and composer Manish Vyas is joined by a small ensemble of Indian musicians on Sufi Splendor: Music for Whirling Meditation, a program of music inspired by the practice of these ancient mystics; each of the three tracks is a song based on one of the Sufi mantras, all of them simply and beautifully sung by Dina Awwad. Unlike his work with Prem Joshua, this music involves no Western club beats or lush synthesizer washes; the primary instruments are the santoor (a kind of hammered dulcimer), sarod, flute, and an African drum called a djembe. The melodies are haunting and lovely, and even the half-hour-long ones contain enough variation and complexity to make them seem to slip by quickly. Recommended. ~ Rick Anderson

Product Details

Release Date:	09/03/2002
Label:	White Swan Records
UPC:	0717147004524
Rank:	92715

Tracks

1. Allaho Akbar, Ya Rahimo Ya Rahman
2. La Illaha Illa Allah
3. Ya Rabbi Salli Alal Habib Mohammaden

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Sufi Splendor   Primary Artist
Manish Vyas   Primary Artist,Keyboards,Percussion,Santoor

Technical Credits

Hari Chaitanya   Producer
Edvin Vaz   Engineer
Mahendra Dave   Producer
Manish Vyas   Composer