Mars Lasar - Karma

Anagram Records / Paras Recordings / SMI

Trance out with this great recording that weaves together nature sounds, ancient instruments, including drums, flutes, sitars, violins, oud, samples of chants from Tibet and Africa with smooth synth washes and keyboards that propel the listener forward in a dreamlike state. Because of the presence of the drums, Karma opens itself to be used for dancing. The mix sounds familiar you say? In a way yes. But where other similar recordings may have put the drums up front and filled in sounds around them, here they keep on percolating through the electronic tracks, with the feeling that the whole experience is moving forward and these sounds are what is heard along the way. The best analogy seems to me that it feels like I am on one of those moving sidewalks in an airport, and as I move forward, I pass through these zones where I hear snippets of music from other cultures, other voices, but rather than stop in any one spot, I keep moving forward toward my destination. What is my destination? Perhaps just a sense of awe at all the beautiful sounds that populate this planet and how so many of them offer a sense of peace, no matter how foreign they initially sound.

Lasar‚s background in music includes many collaborative efforts (Seal, Herbie Hancock, Mike Oldfield, Duran Duran, Hans Zimmer) and soundtracks (Days of Thunder, 6th Man, Jason‚s Lyric, Olympic broadcasts) prior to his solo albums. This variety of experience influences Lasar‚s compositions, giving his work a cinematic feel. It is easy to visualize scenes from imaginary movies as you drink all these sounds in. --DL

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Instrumentation: drums, flutes, sitars, violins, oud, samples of chants from Tibet and Africa, synth, and keyboards.

--Peter Manzi / New Age Voice