Ocean of Milk – Mahamaya Experience (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

If Mahamaya Experience’s music is eclectic and wide-ranging, with ornate and fast-paced pieces at one end of the spectrum and chilled and spacious music at the other, it is toward the latter that we find ourselves with Ocean of Milk.

Ranjit Makkuni’s Sitar sits at the centre of the piece, his melodies and creations often as much made of the atmospheres that pool and percolate between the notes as what he is actually playing, but at a turn, plunging the listener into cascades of notes and flurries of musical talent.

And around him, merely framing his playing, digital beats and chiming electronica combine with tabla drum and percussive rhythms to fill the track out, but doing so gently and with the utmost grace. Understatement is the name of the game here.

This is his vision of a goddess floating across the heavens on an ocean of milk, surrounded by glittering diamonds and words of wisdom. The diamonds represent her inner wealth and beauty, the ocean of milk represents her knowledge and abundance of resources, and the words represent the wisdom and insights of the Buddha itself.

The Ocean of Milk turns out to be a sonic sea of tranquillity.

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