Uma’s Bells – Mahamaya Experience (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Perhaps because the music feels exotic and otherworldly to me, writing as I am sat in the western rock and pop heartland. Perhaps because the music is so experimental, fluid and adventurous. Perhaps it may be because it is so well conceived, composed and delivered. Maybe it is all of those things. Whatever it may be, I have been falling ever more under the spell of Mahamaya Experience‘s rich tones and gorgeous textures since I first heard their music.

Although known for the ability to splice contemporary sonics with traditional sounds, eastern spice with western groove, Uma’s Bells, to my admittedly untutored mind, feels as if it comes from the realms of classical Indian music.

A heady blend of deft and dexterous Sitar, courtesy of Ranjit Makkuni, and addictive tabla rhythms, the music personifies Shiva pinning for Uma. This act in itself blurs the lines between traditional male roles and more feminine emotions, a reminder that even the gods are subject to longing when separated from their partners.

The gentle music personifies the vision of Shiva surrounded by the sights and sounds of a dawn rising over the banks of the Ganges as he pines for his absent love, reflecting the feelings of purity and compassion but also of love and loss and longing that he is dealing with.

As always with Mahamaya Experience, the music is gorgeous and drawn out, gentle and drifting, focussed yet wonderfully and wilfully meandering, like the river he sits near, thinking of the loved one he misses so much.