ARTICLE: CD's testify to local musical kaleidoscope
Gems for the stocking
By Stephen Powell (December 1999, Santa Fe)
...Sacred Fusion. A Fusion of Gregorian Chant and East Indian Dhrupad (Sacred
Fusion Productions 1999)
Originally a clever experiment, the combination of these two very different,
sacred, traditional singing styles has come to full fruition in Sacred
Fusion, by Annette Cantor and Shanti Shivani. It is Cantor's and Shivani's
first CD release. Loreena McKennit move over.
Filling their sound with a spectrum of instruments from the ever-present doumbek to tablas,
zither, tambura, sitar, flute and violin,Sacred Fusion takes
the listener on a journey that bridges the sacred sounds of East and West. It
is uncanny how exquisitely it all fits together.
Cantor's training in Gregorian chant and Western classical music provides a familiar
soothing base on top of which Shivani lays in her raga-related ethereal vocals.
This is sacred singing as healing balm, the instrumental support propelling that
balm into all crevices of the body, mind and soul...