Ganges Into Gold – Mahamaya Experience (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Although it is easy to associate the Mahamaya Experience with music that echoes ancient understandings and is infused with and inspired by timeless wisdom, that isn’t to say that those messages are not relevant today. They are all too pertinent, and tracks like Ganges Into Gold remind us of the link between environmental issues and spiritual teachings.

Given the Ganges’ sacred nature, its close association with fertility and salvation, and its watering of the holy city of Varanasi, the levels of pollution and toxicity found in the waters that lap up against the country’s most revered buildings are shocking.

As the song wanders down its musical path, it ebbs and flows between the gorgeous choral strains of Let My River Flow Forever, its heavenly voices emploring the listener to help ensure that the river flow is allowed to continue timelessly and unspoilt, in itself an act of devotion and the usual deft solo flourishes. Between the passage titled Shine Your Light on the City of Light, a section which swirls and coils like the waters it is sonically describing, and the message framed in more modern terms, the tribal beat groove of Being Green Is Our Only Hope – a cascade of imploring voices, the spirits of the past calling out to us to do the right thing.

Throughout these intertwining pieces, Ranjit Makkuni’s ever-exquisite sonic weaves and dexterous and delicious sonic designs act as gorgeous temporary respites between the lyrics, which demand your attention and make their poetic yet poignant statements.

If ever a song connected the understanding of the past with the issues of the modern world, it is Ganges Into Gold. It reminds us that whilst many people’s way of looking at the world may have changed, the issues are always the same. Call it spiritual understanding, call it environmental responsibility, call it health issues, or call for a more harmonious way of living with the planet; some pertinent and important issues have never really changed.

Read more about the music and the inspiration behind it HERE