Legendary drummer, singer, songwriter and multi-platinum Grammy & Emmy winning producer, Narada Michael Walden, has been a student of Sri Chinmoy since the early 1970s, gaining world fame either playing with, writing songs or producing albums for Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, Devadip Carlos Santana, Patti Austin, Chick Corea, Jeff Beck, Sheena Easton, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and many more.
Sri Chinmoy, who himself recorded an album “Silence Speaks” at an earlier studio of Narada’s in 1984, gave the name Tarpan – meaning “Satisfaction Unparalleled” – to Narada’s new recording studio near San Francisco, in 1985.
A long-time friend of many members of Oneness-Dream, Narada invited the group to his home in San Francisco during their tour of California in May 2015, to visit the first ever statue of Sri Chinmoy, created by English sculptor Kaivalya Torpy, which was commissioned by Narada and stands today in his garden. During this visit, Narada invited the group to record an album at his studio, later in the year.
9 members of Oneness-Dream – founder Snatak Kjeld from Iceland and singers from 8 other countries – again visited Narada at his home and then spent several intense yet delightful hours in Tarpan Studio with Narada and recording engineer Jim Rietzel, recording 39 songs on Wednesday 2 September 2015.
All amateur singers and musicians, the group were thrilled, deeply impressed and supremely grateful for this opportunity to witness and learn from such a master musician and artist-perfectionist. Narada overflowed with kindness and concern for each singer, and overwhelming love for each song. To be in his presence was to be saturated in love of music – and music as pure love.
Narada was especially moved by the singing of soloist Adarsha Kelly, likening the quality of Adarsha’s voice to Harry Belafonte.
Narada suggested that the group focus for a time on Sri Chinmoy’s songs composed with English lyrics, as these might have more immediate appeal to an English-speaking audience. Following Narada’s suggestion, the repertoire for Oneness-Dream’s next 2 tours – around Ireland in 2016 and Tuscany in 2017 – comprised all English songs.
The following text is from the original liner notes of the CD:
Sri Chinmoy composed over 23,000 songs, both in his native Bengali and in English. His songs are devotional, singing of our eternal relationship with the Divine – of separation, adoration, love, playful oneness, prayerful supplication and blissful union.
Sri Chinmoy’s songs are soulful poems voiced forth in simple, beautiful melodies. Oneness-Dream sing the songs as they were composed: unadorned, pure and free.