Arushi Jain Delight [ARTPL-214] Japan Music CD

Product Description
Introduction The long-awaited new album from Indian-born, US-based modular princess Arushi Jain, who achieved a major breakthrough with "Under the Lilac Sky," is finally complete! By layering rich Indian classical vocals with modular synthesis, her sonic vocabulary expands into a rich textured landscape, revealing a new realm of creative focus! Following her long-selling masterpiece "Under the Lilac Sky" (2021), this new album "DELIGHT" centers on the simple proposition that joy is close at hand and that nurturing it is a worthwhile effort. Arushi's aim is "to instill the belief that joy is always present...and when it is hard to find, to assert the need to actively seek it out." To enhance the perception of this elusive emotion, it is necessary to observe the present moment for a long time. By layering cello, classical guitar, marimba, flute, and saxophone with rich Indian classical vocals using modular synthesis, her sonic vocabulary expands into a rich textured landscape, revealing a new realm of creative focus. Arushi Jain is a multi-hyphenated artist/musician?composer, vocalist, engineer, and modular synthesizer player. Widely known, she develops the sounds and aesthetics of contemporary experimental electronic music, channeling, celebrating, repeating, and questioning traditional Indian idioms. Her debut album, *Under the Lilac Sky* (also released on Leaving), was a kind of offering?a suite of six tracks that would accompany the listener while watching the sunset. However, while her previous work concerned time, space, and our external environment, *Delight* is introspective, at times approaching autobiographical. It is simultaneously a record of the artist's inner journey and an invitation/roadmap for the listener to embark on their own quest for joy. Each of the nine songs on "Delight" is inspired by a Raga Bageshri. A raga is a melodic framework unique to Indian classical music, and Bageshri is said to convey the feeling of waiting to be reunited with a loved one. It possesses an innate longing, colored by a powerful fantasy of reunion. "Bageshri embodies the feeling of having fallen into a deep love without even realizing it. It evokes an immeasurable devotion within me, juxtaposed with a poignant awareness of suffering. We are born into this world alone, and we leave alone. Despite this knowledge, the capacity of human love is unconditional, and I find it generous." While she sings about her connection to her past and future self and creative practice (see the meditation on intimacy, "Our Touching Tongues"), her yearning feels more expansive. The beloved that Jain calls out to throughout "Delight" is not a lover like Bageshri seeks, but joy itself. During a period of inactivity in her creative career, she was inspired by Raag Bageshri and moved to Long Island, where she composed and recorded the core tracks for her new album. She created a makeshift studio in an abandoned house by the sea?a home filled with light and art, surrounded by wildlife. This atmosphere permeates the album, which is as drenched in warm sun as it is in the cold October rain. In her self-imposed solitude, she experimented with vocal composition, creating songs from short melodic phrases. She collaborated with acoustic instrumentalists to incorporate classical guitar, cello, marimba, flute, and saxophone into her sonic vocabulary. The result is a collection of sonicly rich songs that are often more relaxed and understated than those on "Under the Lilac Sky," yet incorporate the transcendent possibilities of repetition and the nuances of sampling live instruments with synthesizers. Phrases, lyrics, and notes are repeated, but the emotions they evoke remain consistently fresh. Each track, according to her own description, is a record of a struggle with emptiness and a journey into the unknown. She opened an unknown door and returned with small things that bring precious and unexpected joy. Indeed, 'Delight' is a chilling reminder that with attention, openness, and practice, we can all touch this essential human feeling. Media reviews and more: The long-awaited new album from Indian-born, US-based modular princess Arushi Jain, who had a major breakthrough with 'Under the Lilac Sky,' is finally here! By layering rich Indian classical vocals with modular synthesis, her sonic vocabulary expands into a rich textured landscape, revealing a new realm of creative focus! (C)RS