Uma Mohan’s Sanskrit chants
On my perpetual quest to find music that has been well done in the burgeoning “devotional” category of Indian music, I discovered Uma Mohan’s renditions of Sanskrit chants a few years ago.
Mohan has used western music, employing harmony better than some have in the category of devotional music and in Indian film music. She often comes up with a rather upbeat “pop” sound. It’s all quite new-agey, but I go through phases when I quite listening to the albums she’s conceptualised, before going back to something more classical.
One of the advantages of Mohan’s renditions is that the enunciation is clear, and one can sing along. I’ve found myself remembering the words to a lot of Sanskrit compositions because of Uma Mohan. Children, and those who don’t have an ear for Indian classical music, but who still want to listen to Sanskrit chants might like them too. What I don’t like is how synthetic the orchestration can sometimes sound, wish I could cancel that out.
Below are some albums that have some good music in the devotional genre.
Sounds good. This is the first time I heard Uma Mohan.
Thanks to your post, I was reminded of SPB’s evergreen Lingashtakam.
May be you know about this album, but thought I’ll share it here. If time permits pls do check out these tracks.
Nice posting. Do you know about these Sanskrit books?
http://www.YogaVidya.com/freepdfs.html