Transcendent. It’s a word that’s often applied to music, especially “worship” music. There is something about a soaring melody and bursting chorus that helps to draw our affections upwards. And yet, that descriptor, transcendent, how often, if ever does it ever really apply? There’s only so many times we can hear “worship” lyrics laid on top of a recycled Coldplay riff before we begin to think we just might have heard this before. All the while, we seem to be in the midst of a flood of homogenized Anglo-Saxon-ized that’s only differentiated by the choice of distortion pedal.

Aradhna has been swimming against this tide for approximately eight years. As the fusion band Olio came to a close in 1999, long-time friends Chris Hale and Pete Hicks began to play “South Asian devotional songs called bhajans,” for the British Asian community in London. According to the group’s press-kit:

Chris had been living in South Asia from childhood, and could speak Nepali and Hindi fluently, he often felt torn between his eastern and western spiritual identity. He longed for an Indian expression of devotion to Yeshu Khrist, the North Indian name for Jesus Christ. In the course of this search, he had found Yeshu bhaktas (devotees) in different parts of the world who expressed their adoration through bhajans and the Indian way of bhakti (devotion).

In 2000, Chris and Pete recorded their first project as Aradhna, which means “adoration” in Hindi. Travis McAfee was added on bass and since then, Chris, Pete and Travis have all married and continued to mature their sound, resulting in their fourth album, Amrit Vani (”Immortal Word“).

The band combines western-style acoustic guitar and bass with sitar, Hindustani violin, tabla (and other percussion elements) with lyrics, both in Hindi and sometimes in English. The album opens with “Jaya Dev,” (”Victory to God”), drifting in with gentle acoustic guitar, soon joined by percussion elements, it doesn’t take long to realize that this is something new as the lyrics, sung in Hindi, float to the surface. The song gradually builds as a choir joins in for the soaring chorus and as the violin drifts in, we’re reminded that music can indeed, be transcendent. The song’s soaring chorus roughly translates as “Victory to God, Victory to God, the man-God” and this is a representative example of the straight-forward devotion offered throughout.

The album maintains a mid-tempo focus, with many of the songs utilizing a building, tension/release formula, highlighting the interplay between the acoustic guitar, violin, Eastern percussion and sitar, keeping the lyrics at the forefront, often incorporating choir-style vocals for moving effect. Most of the words are in Hindi, but English translations are available in the CD booklet. The songs are very straight-forward expressions of adoration for Christ, but the fact that they’re sung in Hindi reminds us of the many colored tapestry that is the Body of Christ. The title track, along with “Bhajo Re,” will have you singing along, praising in a tongue probably not your own, regardless of your view on glossololia.

The song “Man Mera,” features, to the surprise of some, the English chorus of “Pour out Your Light and Your Truth, let them guide me,” sung by a voice that could be a dead-ringer for Peter Gabriel over a choir singing in Hindi. The song gradually builds to a controlled frenzy, highlighting everything this band does well.

The closing track, “Narahari,” features a spoken-word segment describing the majesty of Christ over the repeated chorus from the opening track “Jaya Dev.” The chorus repetition works well to center the album as a whole. The chorus builds in volume, accenting the majesty of the Savior who has purchased us. The combination works well, though I’m not a huge fan of spoken-word segments. The combination of theological descriptions of Jesus with heartfelt adoration is something many acts can learn from.

Amrit Vani is a welcome addition to both the “world” and “worship” music circles, seamlessly bridging the two. The floating lines of the sitar and violin, the soaring voices, punctuated by tabla and anchored by western-style acoustic guitar and bass is the perfect mix. This is, by far one of the best albums of 2007 you still need to hear.

• Visit Aradhna’s official website
• Read the history of the group
• Purchase music directly from the band
• Read Robert Blakes review of the album for The Phantom Tollbooth
• Purchase Aradhna’s music from Amazon
• Purchase Aradhna from