The Nightingale glides again

Auckland, New Zealand – Two decades of controlled, disciplined and immensely alluring onstage performances and years later The Netherlands-based Tibetan classical/opera singer, song writer, poet and actor Namgyal Lhamo will be seen on centre stage with a fresh burst of energy in her upcoming independent Dutch art house film "Karma" and a new multimedia album "The Enchanted Land" to be produced in India and Thailand which will feature 3 music videos.

Namgyal Lhamo, a former teacher/student of the TIPA (INDIA) is a complete musician performing onstage with her signature Lute. Says Namgyal about the upcoming year "I am really grateful and humbled by the response I got from my first album Songs from Tibet (Music and Words-2002) and "Catharsis" (BMG PR-ED, 2006). The next one will be completely different and it’s sound breaks free from common expectations surrounding Tibetan music and it’s niche market."Shane Mendonsa — the 18 year old son of Loy Mendonsa of the National award winning and hugely popular Indian movie music trio Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy, incidentally has scored the background music in "Karma". It has been written and directed by Mumbai based maverick research writer/filmmaker Arvind Iyer whose association with internationally acclaimed cinematographer Santosh Sivan (The Terrorist, Asoka) inspired the making of "Karma".

Says the longhaired Iyer, a former student of oriental opera who is also producing her upcoming album, "The sound is very alternative and Eurasian highland. I like pushing boundaries. For me, Namgyal in her genre is the best in the world. An artiste without unnecessary gimmicks and a rock star at heart. It was when we were shooting the videos that I realized that I was treading on unsheltered vocal landscape and a chance meeting with a French publishing magnate based in New Delhi sealed its future."

With a support system set in the heartland of Bollywood, with the best talent available in the industry for guidance and with the likes of the new Indian phenomenon Himesh Reshammiya for a next door neighbor to look up to for marketing inspiration, Her production team of sound designers and composers are looking at stretching the creative envelope and introducing the sound of Namgyal Lhamo to circles of World Music lovers with a unique flavour that is modern, sophisticated and ultra hip yet reminiscent of the purity and sanctity that looms over the sounds of Tibetan traditional music and the great spirit of it’s people. Sans cliché.

The "Nightingale" is all set to soar in the months to come.

[Mehrnoosh is a world citizen and globetrotter. She is the creator of the reserved print publication FirstRushed reviewer and author of the satirical "Highland Hippie". She can be reached at: mehrnoosh.rubinstein@gmail.com.

Originally published in Music Tibet on 16 January 2007