Album Notes

QUIESSENCE is a 73 minute journey into the sensual delights and spiritual depths of the liquid like sound of the BANSURI flute, the classical bamboo flute of India. Embedded in the hypnotic, deeply relaxing vibrational drones of the Indian 4 & 5 string tamboura and the western multi-stringed zither, the compositions on this CD are brimming with RASA, the taste or juice of emotional and spiritual essence at the heart of the Indian RAGA.

The first track, 'REAPPEARANCE OF DAWN' takes one on a 'RAG MALA' journey, a garland of Ragas strung together like a necklace of jewels, expressing the Rasa of each 'prachar' or watch (time) of the day. From early morning through midday, dusk and the darkest hour of night till dawn reappears the deep, resonant sounds of each perfectly tuned 'svara' (note) of the bansuri acts like a of vibrational magic carpet upon which the listener can float into a sea of eternity.

'NIGHTINGALES PRAYER' offers another Rasa, the soulful searching sound of longing. Shifting harmonics created by one, two and three bansuris play upon one another filling the space with powerful mesmerizing calls to the infinite. A more experimental piece, the prayer gives voice to the longing and the fulfillment of the hearts yearning.

'MOONLIGHT EMBRACE' is Mindia's original interpretation of the ancient evening Raga Yaman Kalyan. A sublime energy of peace, devotion and love flow from the bansuri while beneath the flow of breath are the continual harmonic embraces of the sounds of the multi stringed zither. Romantic, sensual, lovely.

Mindia Devi Klein is a multi award-winning musician composer and one of the world's only female bansuri flute players performing on the scene today. She has committed herself to a life of music following the muse's spirit of creativity where ever it takes her. A disciple of both Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, two of the worlds leading masters of Indian classical music, she is also a Fulbright Scholar of Balinese Gamelan and a jazz flutist with deep roots in the classic NYC jazz scene of her teenage years.