“ Music to me is a spiritual journey into the soul and I have felt this especially in the making of Krishn—Kanhai ”

The first strains of music for this collection awoke in my heart during a trip to Vrindavan, a holy confluence of spiritual vibrations, poetic imagery and the cultural heritage of India; all wedded to the tales of Lord Krishna’s boyhood and youth.

One evening , sitting on the banks of the immortal Jamuna river and watching it flowing langorously along the ghats, I felt transported in time and had a vision of the gopikas, cowherds wending their weary way home with the cattle, the introspective hour of ‘Godhuli’, the haunting melodic strains of the celestial flute.Thus ‘Chalo ri Murali Suniye’ was born.

At Vrindavan again, I was blessed to be part of a Holi played with flowers. Called ‘phoolon ki Holi’, an incredible experience of music, with the vibrant and colourful flower-petals showering upon me, I could feel the magic of Holi come alive and transcend the dimensions of time and space. I have tried to capture this magic in the composition ‘Holi Khelath hai’ , where the cascading notes of the line ‘bhari bhari mooth gulal…’ have been structured to reflect the rise and fall of the colourful gulal or abeer, showering down on the people celebrating Phagun or Spring.

For the rest,I consider this a musical homage to the elevating spiritual poetry of saints like Meerabai, Surdas, Nand-das and Kabirdas.

I am also deeply indebted to my accompanying artistes who made it possible for me to break free of the usual framework of modern musical background scores and explore the now rarely used magic of traditional instrumentation.