SAMSARA

For the longest time Sarah Mclachlan was my favorite Canadian female artists. Though deemed not sufficiently progressively enough for progarchives, a mistake in my opinion, along comes Rani Chatoorgoon. She had pretty much gotten ignored and that is a shame. Although I do admit if it had not been for House of Prog I would have missed out on her too. I am not So here she is in Crossover when a better fit would have been Indo Prog, as she was doing traditional Indian music since childhood and those elements are certainly being mixed here with progressive rock. Enough griping. On to the album. Which by the way, arrived heavily autographed with a nice little post it thank you note.

The instruments. Rani herself is lead vocals with harmonium and acoustic guitar. There are additional vocalists, guitarists (electric and acoustic), a specialist in traditional Indian instruments (tabla, sitar, sarangi, sarod, santoor, bansuri, dholak), we have violin, strings, and drums. All of this makes for some music as tasty as good Indian food.

The music. The album's starter track, The Gray, kicks off with a very quiet Indian drone of sorts. Then Rani starts chanting a little aaaheeeaaaahhheeeaaahing with the violin interplaying with her and then clearing the veil, reveal the betrayal, all that I know is, one truth, could there be, floating or falling the end is beginning, here in the gray there is never just one way'For and opening song it is just amazing the beautiful way the music builds and you know you are going to be in for quite a ride for the rest of the album. I am not going to painstakingly detail the whole album. But just consider some of the titles Lonely Witness, Unbearable, Let Me Go, My Prison.

Then we come to Sweet Solace. One of the lightest songs on the album. It could be a top 40 hit if top 40 weren't resistant to anything that doesn't fit into the formula.

After a brief moment of lightness the album wraps with Guardian Of Souls.

The place to sample this album as I write this is Spotify. If you like intense prog with an Indian flavor this one won't disappoint.