03/05/2024
Blessed to be part of this ! Great mix work @ John Potoker!!!
see you soon 🙏
It's Bandcamp Friday again, and Japa, my first Kirtan album, first released in 2002, has now been re-mastered by Stefan Heger Mastering, one of my collaborators on the Grammy nominated Mantra Americana project, at his studio in Cologne, Germany. It sounds great! The tracks have stood the test of time and become singalong classics of sorts. Check it out here: https://davestringer.bandcamp.com/album/japa-remastered-2024
Back in the day, my eccentric Spanish house in the Whitley Heights section of the Hollywood Hills was the scene of many epic chanting parties, and I gathered a crowd of those musicians and singers there to record it, with Saul David Raye engineering the tracks.
The arrangements we created changed the way many people heard and experienced Kirtan and launched me onto a concert tour that lasted almost two decades and spanned five continents. Many of the artists featured on the tracks went on to make their own Chant recordings, including Donna De Lory, C.C. White A Musical Journey, Suzanne Sterling, Toni Childs and Girish.
The re-mastered tracks will hit the streaming services in the middle of May, but you can hear the re-mastered album on Bandcamp starting tomorrow, May 3. It’s Bandcamp Friday, when they waive all of their fees and send all funds directly to the artists. If you really want to support your favorite artists, Bandcamp is by far the best way to get their music, and they have an app you can easily download to your phone. https://davestringer.bandcamp.com/
A shout out to John Potoker, who mixed the album, and deep gratitude to all the amazing musicians who did so much to craft the arrangements and an enlarge the musical possibilities of Chant: Jay Bellerose, Ian Walker, James Harrah, Domonic Dean Breaux Music, Candy Girard, Cameron Stone, Mark Edward Smith, Danny Peck, Joni Allen, Marty Alan, Scott Mills, Michael Mollura Music, Jay Gibson, Travis Huff.
The choir featured an epic cast of friends and yoga luminaries including Aaron Reed, Anthony Benenati, Caleb Michael Brennan, Christi Minarovich, Elizabeth Rossa, Gregory Wendt,
Haribol Siddhadas, Govindas, Jaik Grace,
Laria Saunders, Liz Burnette, Micheline Berry, Nirlepa Howard,
Patricia Sill, Rebecca Parks, Samantha Mehra, Sean O’Byrne, Seane Corn, Shakti Gray, Shanti Shivani, Shauna Hellewell, and Sudama Mark Kennedy.
Cover design by Lance Glover.