SWADHISTHANA

Swadhisthana is one of Senmuth's earliest masterpieces. It's a great electronic folk album about Hindu religion, Indian culture and Central Asian lifestyle. Senmuth was influenced by some Indian movies he saw and this album uses some film samples and employs some church choirs and traditional female chants that sound very authentic and fusion perfectly with the instrumental work of our Russian workaholic. It's a majestic album, it has many catchy moments and its also danceable. It has a strong tendency towards Senmuth's experimental ambient works but sounds less overloaded and much more coherent.

From the beginning of the album on that kicks off with the brilliant highlight "Para-Brahma" the music is able to create images of Indian villages celebrating folk dances and chants. You immediately have a smile on your face and go on a cultural voyage of the grandest kind. The great thing about the album is that it sounds coherent from the beginning to the end and has no filler material even though the strongest tracks are probably placed in the beginning such as the memorable experiment with the strange title "Sakala-jana-kAmyAm".

In the end, this is the first record made by Senmuth that truly makes you discover a foreign culture in an authentic way. There are many more albums of that kind to come but this first try is easily among the strongest ones and touches a country that Senmuth didn't touch that often in his discography. It really feels as if he took more time and creativity to create those authentic songs than he did on his previous releases and is intellectually his strongest release of Senmuth's first year of multiple creations. Forget about Bollywood soundtracks or international folk festivals, this release here is all you need for your next curry cook night in candlelight with a beautiful Indian maid.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on August 15th of the year 2011.