Opium Moon – Where We Are Gathered (Downtown Artists, 2023)
Opium Moon, a band of four talented musicians from Iran, Israel, Canada, and the U.S., won a Grammy in 2019 for their debut album, Opium Moon. Their sophomore release, Night + Day (2021), was also recognized with a nomination. The band’s unique chemistry, which drives their distinct and luscious sound, was discovered in Los Angeles, where the musicians crossed paths.
The third album of this quartet features a plethora of deep, rhythmic grooves, soaring violin, shimmering santoor (Persian hammered dulcimer), and angelic vocals that create a multi-hued, cinematic soundscape. The quartet’s otherworldly, ancient-modern alchemy is glorious in its new work, which is both hypnotic and respectful, innovative, and sensual.
Opium Moon’s latest release, Where We Are Gathered, showcases a departure from their previous works. The band has invited several guest artists to join them in creating a song sequence of interestingly varied textures and tonalities.
One of the featured guest artists is Benjy Wertheimer, a beloved devotional singer, who contributes deeply resonant vocals on two tracks – “Metta Prayer” and “Metta Prayer Invocation.” In these tracks, he intones the words of the Buddhist loving-kindness mantra in the liturgical Pali language of India, with the chanted prayer set like a gem amid the whirling dazzle of Opium Moon’s virtuosic instrumentation. The timeless mantra was encouraged by the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, more than two millennia ago, and today, yoga superstar Shiva Rea has chosen “Metta Prayer” as the featured music in her new guided meditation.
South Africa’s two-time Grammy winner Wouter Kellerman embellishes the lilting Of Kiss and Wing with the delicate filigrees of his flutes. Ramin Sakurai of Supreme Beings of Leisure co-wrote “Love and Understanding,” contributed programming grooves on several songs, and co-produced the album, along with Lili Haydn and Itai Disraeli.
The famous Iranian singer Hengameh joins the band on the rousing, anthemic closing track, “Woman, Life, Freedom”, alternating the words of the Iranian freedom movement’s protest chant in Farsi and English as the musicians raise their voices and their fists in moral outrage and support of women’s rights and freedom following the tragic death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iranian authorities last year.
Itai Disraeli says, “This album is the sound of the human spirit singing freely through all of us.” Lili Haydn adds, “It speaks to our time, in which people feel increasingly disconnected through the bombardment of social media: AI, pandemic, war, and suffering. Where we are gathered, there is hope. Where we are gathered, there can be love and understanding, the evolution of ideas, and the willingness ; indeed, the mandate to listen to each other and make beauty in the face of darkness.”
Author: Ian Bevington
