Search - Jai Uttal :: Nectar: Live Kirtan & Pagan Remixes

Kirtan is the communal call-and-response chanting and singing, over and over, of the many names of the Hindu gods and goddesses. The practice is intended to invoke these deities, and by so doing, make the participants become one with them. It is an offering of spirit and feeling, a prayer; a devotional practice set to music. Unlike Krishna Das's excellent Live on Earth (For a Limited Time Only), a live recording of kirtan sessions that's easy to chant along with at home, Jai Uttal's Nectar: Live Kirtan & Pagan Remixes is headier--more of a listening experience. Interspersing street recordings from India and electronica-infused remixes, along with live kirtan recordings, Uttal offers a devotional and intense musical experience. The 25-minute trance-inducing "Om Namah Shivaya" alone is worth the price of the CD for the inner journey it will take you on. Another highlight, Ben Leinbach's "Radha (Remix)," samples vocal elements of the Radha mantra and beautifully places them in a hypnotic and pulsating electronic world-music bed. "Big Wheel (Remix)" masterfully reworks more of the Radha chant in a surprising dub-heavy arrangement. With the exception of the wailing vocal supplication, "Opening the Gates," which will probably appeal to mostly hardcore chant fans, Nectar is accessible and moving. Uttal, who has been leading kirtan sessions for 30 years, likens kirtan to "an oil well digging deeper and deeper into the heart. A power tool of love and longing." While some devote hours, years, or a lifetime to the practice of kirtan, the sweet spot, or nectar, of this CD is that it can give a glimpse of the union with spirit--and what a sweet spot that is. --Kevin Cole