Art Tawanghar is a genius when it comes to chill, ambient and New Age influenced music. I have been listening to him for a while, and his music seems to be like eating your favorite gourmet meal, you just can’t get enough. I could easily use his latest album, “Buddha Lounge 3 Chill – New Age California” as a morning meditation, beginning every day with it, to explore the space in my mind that will set a positive tone for the day. Its 7 tracks, contain a story of the promise of the coming age in ethereal, beautiful music that focuses the mind, spirit and body on peace, calming action and future growth. At least that’s my personal attraction to this poignantly beautiful music. You can succumb to your own personal seduction and enchantment, as Tawanghar’s music has so many cross cultural flavors, its alluring chemistry allows for endless open-minded interpretations.
Art Tawanghar is an award-winning and Billboard charting composer, musician and multi-genre producer, who combines electronic production, live instrumentation, and a variety of Western and Eastern cultural influences to craft his uniquely relaxing and soul-searching sounds. Tawanghar released his spiritually searching album “Soul of the Earth” in 2016.
A year later he dropped “Buddha Lounge”, the instrumental album charted on Billboard #1 for 13+ weeks in the New Age Chart. This was followed by “Buddha Lounge 2” which won many accolades, and was also considered for the 61st Grammy Awards.
June 2019 sees Art Tawanghar raise the bar even higher, with the releases of “Buddha Lounge 3 Chill – New Age California” – containing 7 deeply meditative and life-affirming songs. Everything within its leaps and bounds is quite remarkable on this album, either through pure musicality, or the immense emotional basis that Tawanghar’s arrangements thrive on. None more so than the surprising opening track, “Into the Unknown ( Live Piano Improvisations in 432Hz)”.
The introduction sets an introspective tone, and then the flowing main part of the song comes in – gently rolling and easy-going, with lots of open space between the phrases of the melody. There is a melancholy mood, made masterful by the subtlety, before the arrangement thrives on the stunning use of dynamics.
“Divine Chemistry” starts on a similar sonic template, prior to evolving and gently expanding outward. The added stringed instruments, insistent percussion, and ethereal vocals are meant to mesmerize the senses, which they promptly achieve in doing.
“Love is the End” is a beautiful, poignant ballad that begins in sultry whispery tones. The sublime vocal harmonies envelop the track, and the senses, while the underlying string section steadily builds up the emotional quotient, eventually morphing into cinematic amplitude.
“Ocean in a Drop”, stirs up the rhythm, the expansive jazzy feel, and the all-round complexity. Rich instrumental lushness abounds, as horns fill the atmosphere, alongside the haunting vocal interludes supplied by featured singer Shakila. What attracts me to this music the most, is the heart and soul that is put into each and every track.
It is something that is definitely heard in every stringed riff, every percussion break, and every silky smooth progression of melody on “Conscious Dream”. Art Tawanghar manages to fold each sound over the immaculately produced beat, so that the track becomes a unique cross-cultural journey.
To that extent, “Crystalline Grid”, leans heavily on its Eastern instrumentation which dominates the track with soul-searching, plucked motifs. Rolling pianos, throbbing basslines and a momentum chasing rhythm, sustains the inebriating vocal oscillations.
“Storyteller – Instrumental” maintains the exotic instrumentation, leaving plenty space for what sounds like a Bansuri – a side blown bamboo flute which originates from the Indian subcontinent. This injects the tune with an uplifting and harmonious identity, which is further propelled by the piano tones and the vibrant percussion.
With a meticulously curated album such as “Buddha Lounge 3 Chill – New Age California”, Art Tawanghar bestows on us a transcendental listening experience that sifts through astral planes from start to finish.
Drawing inspiration from both the spiritual and the physical, this album is a cerebral excursion of celestial proportions. It’s the kind of music that’s hard to put into words because it makes you feel in abstractions, with intangible vibrations that command your entire presence and attention.
For more information on Art Tawanghar, please visit Majorhitrecords.com
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