Aradhna

I've been so preoccupied with moving over the last few weeks, that I've hardly written anything about my four days at the Wild Goose Festival in Shakori Hills, North Carolina. According to their website, the festival strives to be a celebration "at the intersection of justice, spirituality and art." This means the festival included many things, from talks on Christian activism to workshops on dance as a form of prayer. Additionally, for the duration of the festival, you could not walk far without hearing live music come from one of the many pavilions scattered across the wooded campus.

For the time that Shakori Hills was home, this music was in the air. Sometimes, the music was less than welcome: I learned, for example, that I am apparently too old to enjoy midnight percussion concerts that start just behind my tent.

Most of the music, however was wonderful. When you are hot, sweaty, and mostly unwashed, the clarity and jubilation of music can have a unusual power. My favorite group at the festival was called Aradhna, and they create songs of Christian devotion in Hindi and Sanskrit.

Here they are singing a song called "Gaao Re."  The name means "Sing, O Sky," and the song calls all creation to praise God. This video is not from Wild Goose, but it gives a sense of the joy I heard in the singing there.



I also bought three of Aradhna's cds, and those albums were among the first I played in my new Alabama home. The sound is much less raw, more contemplative, than the wood-born music I heard last month. But both are good. Both are becoming part of the sounds of my home. (I especially like "River")

Have you discovered any new music this summer?