Album Notes

Krishna Prema das was born as GiamPaolo Tofani in Florence Italy, 1944. At the age of 16 he started playing guitar following the mood of artists of that time (Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The Shadows etc.)

In 1969 after different musical experiences in Italy (including the groups “I Samurai”, “I Califfi” ), he found him self in England playing in various clubs in London. At that time he started getting involved with the Electronic Synths of EMS and working on solo productions. He mastered a way to get great sound out of a simple stereo tape recorder.

In 1973 Paolo returned to Italy to join the group named “Area”. During this time he became deeply involved in electronic, jazz, avant-garde, ethnic and classical music with musicians like Stockhausen, Derek Baley, Steve Lacy, Zakir Hussain and many others. His explorative nature brought his life into a radical direction when he became a Vaishnava monk in 1979.

This did not stop his desire to go deeper into the understanding of music, but gave inspiration to go deeper into the root meaning of it, and the connections it has to the spiritual side of the human being.

His intense research lead him to music of the Raga scales and the design and construction of a unique guitar type instrument call a “Tri-kanta Veena”.

The Radicals Ragas series is my musical ecstasy.

“Essence” is really where I stand musically today. No more complex arrangements, no more harmony, no more intricate percussion, but just the clean and deep sound of the Tri-kanta Veena, a veena guitar I designed (history on this instrument; http://www.krsnavision.com/Personal/Personal-TKV.html). This is a world of meaning and, like an ancient dance, each note has a life of it’s own, each note has a deep spiritual meaning. The fluidity of these improvisations put me deeper into another dimension.

Sometimes I feel like a tired ancient creature, stuck in the mud of this material planet. Still I believe in reason and goodwill, in pure sound vibrations that can reveal the great opportunity of our humanity, and even more the essence of our real nature, our spiritual nature. I designed this unusual instrument, the trikanta vina, for this purpose. I hope it’s sound vibrations along with other subtle spiritual sounds can go to the heart of people who can still hear, unlike the unfortunate souls who are floating in an ocean of names.

Now Krishna Prema produces his music in an endeavor to share his thoughts and realizations as a musician and a man with others.

A more complete autobiography on our web site at:
http://www.krsnavision.com/Personal/Personal-PT.html
and
http://www.krsnavision.com/Personal/Personal-TKV.html