Featured Artist: Mars Lasar
CD Title: Karma
Year: 2001
Record Label: PGI / Anagram Records
Style: World Music
Musicians: All songs composed by Mars Lasar. Except song #6 co-written by
Mars Lasar and Kelly Hansen. Mars Lasas, piano, keyboards, programming and
sound design. Kelly Hansen, guitars. Omar Faruk, Middle Eastern Instrumentation.

Review:
This new CD release is a true blending of world music themes with contemporary
jazz themes, and it is a highly unusual collection. The title is KARMA, and it
certainly is that. There are 11 selections on this CD. Among them are found such
intoxicating songs as "Great Beast of Wisdom," "Peep Cavern," "Seventh Journey,"
"Enchanted," "Sacrifice," "Thusness," "Prophecies," "Doha," "Tara," "The Holiness,"
and "Inseperable Universe." The jazz listener will find this listening experience a
true existential adventure: The sounds one will encounter will give meaning to chaos,
creating a center of beauty out of nothingness, forming a perfect universe of
enchantment. This is an eclectic listening experience jazz listeners will find
memorable. That KARMA deserves much airplay is an accurate statement, for it has
much going for it that will attract many jazz fans. The work of Omar Faruk with his
Middle Eastern instrumentation is perfectly at ease with the scope of the collection
and adds to the enjoyment of the music. Mars Lasar has created a contemporary
masterpiece in the collection titled KARMA with such remarkable performances.
A superb recording, flawless!

Reviewed by: Lee Prosser