The Snow Lotus: Improvisations on Tibetan Buddhist Hymns (Rhymoi Music, 2014)
Unless you are a hermit just down from the mountain to check your email and music news, the chances are good your day has been bombarded by cheesy jingles or chirpy, happy theme songs, you’ve been personally harassed by unwanted pop music with vocals that sound like those of coked up mice and have marinated in enough industrial, construction and lawn implement noise to send a sedate ascetic on a drug and alcohol fueled, road raged crime spree. I think I can help. What you need is a good, healthy dose of serenity. As luck would have it Rhymoi Music has serenity all wrapped in its release of The Snow Lotus: Improvisations on Tibetan Buddhist Hymns. Featuring vocalist and composer Tsering Tan and harpist Zhang Xiaoyin, The Snow Lotus is a tranquil, breathe-in-breathe-out respite following the Buddhist traditions of Tibet.
Opening with the tones of a bell, The Snow Lotus unfolds with “Supplication to Padmasahava,” before moving into “Calling to the Guru” and “Bodhicitta,” each moving the listener deeper into the musical landscape of Tibet. In addition to Tsering Tan’s soothing vocals and Zhang Xiaoyin’s elegant harp lines, Zhao Xiong adds interconnecting lines on the di (flute), Yang Xue offers up poignantly erhu (spike fiddle), Song Zhao lends cello to the mix while Ma Rui and Dong Miao pepper compositions with percussion. Tungridukmokyi adds her own special flair with female vocals. Tsering Tan proves his own prowess of Tibetan tradition through his own compositions on “The Four Refuges,” “Spiritual Song,” “Supplication to H.H. Jigmey Phuntsok Kharmaraja” and the improvised “Prayer.”
Without being spare, The Snow Lotus allows for each musical element or voice to followed throughout each track, lending the whole a carefully worked, serene feel where every element works toward the whole, where bell, chant and the occasional throb of drum are clear against a backdrop of harp, di, erhu and cello.
Kudos goes to producer Ye Yunchuan for the CD’s balance and quality. While the press material categorizes this in the world music and New Age genres, there’s not one hint of the over-produced, over-worked, fluffy sound one sometimes gets with New Age offerings. The Snow Lotus is a flawless sketch of voice and instrument of the Tibetan musical landscape.
Tsering Tan, Zhang Xiaoyin and company have conjured up a deliciously soothing collection of tracks on The Snow Lotus that is bound to put you on the harmonious path once again.
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
