Synopses & Reviews
Alongside the familiar Yoga practice of movement and meditation is the ancient Yoga of Music and Chant whose goal is to open your heart, awaken your mind, and arouse your Spirit. Russill Paul is a modern master of this practice, having left his career in film music to immerse himself in monastery life and be initiated into this powerful art. CD1) Shakti: Tantric Embrace. Indian percussion, flute, sarangi, tanpura, and Russill's stirring Tantric chants arouse the body's subtle energy centers, called chakras. Shakti connects you to your body and the earth, heightening sensuality, deepening yoga practice, and inspiring movement and meditation. CD2) Bhava: Ecstatic Heart. Russill's penetrating Sanskrit chanting combined with guitars, synthesizers, tanpura, sarangi and percussion opens your heart to mystical union with Spirit. Bhava unites the expansiveness of the cosmos with the intimacy of the human body, bringing you a sense of inner freedom and profound love.Russill Paul presents his work on musical mysticism at retreats and learning centers worldwide. He is the author of The Yoga of Sound: Tapping the Hidden Power of Music and Chant (New World Library), has shared the stage with many musical luminaries, and has performed for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His music is delightful--a spiritually uplifting experience.Carolyn Myss, best-selling author of Sacred Contracts. His fusion of the sounds of India with the energy and technology of contemporary Western music produces a sound unequaled since George Harrison collaborated with Ravi Shankar in the late 1960s--Arlo Guthrie
Synopsis
CD1) Shakti – Tantric Embrace
Shakti introduces you to the 1500-year old Tantric tradition of using sacred sound to stimulate the flow of the bodys subtle energy centers called “chakras.” Balancing your chakras by singing these inspirational Tantric chants enhances your senses, heightens sensuality, and physical pleasure, and helps you establish a deep connection to our body and to the earth. Russill Paul masterfully blends the tremendous power of these ancient chants with an ensemble of traditional Indian and contemporary instrumentation.
CD2) Bhava – Ecstatic Heart
Bhava yoga, developed in the fourteenth century, is the practice of using exquisite, melodic chanting to experience the rapture associated with connecting to the Divine. Chanting these powerful ancient words unites the expansiveness of the cosmos with the intimacy of the human body, bringing you a sense of inner freedom, liberation, and profound love. Russill Paul masterfully blends the tremendous power of these ancient chants with an ensemble of traditional Indian and contemporary instrumentation.
About the Author
A native of Chennai,
South India, Russill Paul took to playing stringed instruments from the early age of four and began playing music professionally in his teens. In 1984, he underwent a powerful spiritual transition that motivated him to begin living the unusual combination of a Benedictine monk and yogi under the direction of Dom Bede Griffiths.
During the years he spent as a monk, Russill immersed himself in the study of traditional Sanskrit chanting and South Indian classical music as well as yoga, meditation, philosophy and cosmology. His experiences during these years inspired him to develop the tools related to his lifework -The Yoga of Sound.
Russill Paul is author of the ground-breaking work The Yoga of Sound: Tapping the Hidden Power of Music and Chant (New World Library). He has been involved with the music industry for over two decades, recording film sound tracks in South India as well as recording and producing his own world class recordings which are distributed worldwide.