Tibet2Timbuk2

♫ Listen to a sample playlist of “Music is Life” ♫

1	Beautiful Girl / Bhumo Zhema	Any face is beautiful when it carries a smile.	4:21
2	Ama	Whimsically beseeching a bird to carry a message of hope to Tibet .	4:58
3	Crane Song (Ngagpey Sungkey)	Despite deep attachment, a crane cannot survive on a frozen lake.	7:35
4	Tso Marpo	Blue, red, yellow and white are the colours attributed to the body, speech, heart and consciousness.	6:57
5	Lotus Born	Musical homage to the great compassionate mantra “Om Ma Ni Phad May Hum” (Jewel in the Lotus).	10:21
6	Little Things	The best things in life are the little things. For Isabella.	5:58
7	Dawey Wola	Under the moon, sharing our thoughts and dreams.	6:30
8	Jhi Chung	The bird in the Willow has the sweetest song.	4:33
9	Music Is Life / Menfanh	A song about Lansana’s beautiful village in Guinea where he used to play music by the river in the evening.	7:20

Download tracks or order the CD at our online store.

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• Beautiful Girl / Bhumo Zhema
  Collaborative Tenzin-Marcello upbeat feelgood country-and-eastern song
• Crane Song
  Beautiful piece based on traditional Western Tibetan folk song
  – Winner of 2008 QSong BEMAC Best World Music Award!!!
  

  Tibet2Timbuk2 receiving the 2008 QSong BEMAC World Music Award for Crane Song

Download tracks or order the CD at our online store.

Proceeds from sales go to support the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala, India.

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Menaka Visvanathan is a young local artiste who started learning classical Indian music from a tender age of 5 in the Sri Krishna Music Academy in Brisbane under the tutelage of her mother and principal of the school, Mrs. Vijaya Visvanathan. Through the music her mother has imparted to her, Menaka has experienced the beauty of divine love and surrender and endeavours to share these experiences with others through her vocal music. Menaka is also an exponent of Bharata- Natyam, or south Indian classical dance, graduating from this divine art in 2004. She has sung and danced at many community events, including Woodford Folk Festival, Sacred Music Festival, numerous charity events and has collaborated with many artistes, including Tenzin Choegyal.

Menaka has performed with Tibet2Timbuk2 on numerous occasions, notably at the CD Launch of “Music is Life” at Brisbane Powerhouse, 15th November 2008.

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Peter Hunt is a singer, trumpet player and composer. He often plays by the river and on the street raising his point of view to and through one of song and dance. He harmonises with a diversity of musicians and has a gift for translating feeling into melody. He writes and plays with jazz-reggae groups kooii and ruby blue.

Peter plays trumpet on 3 tracks on “Music is Life” – Lotus Born, Little Things and Dawey Wola.

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Maestro Sangeet Mishra is a talented musician and capable exponent of Indian music in the Benaras tradition. Sangeet comes from a long line of sarangi masters from India’s holiest city, Varanasi, and has performed with leading artists in India and around the world.

He first learned to play sarangi from his father Pandit Santosh Mishra, received advanced training from his grandfathers Maestro Bhagwan Das and Maestro Narayan Das Mishra and was considered by his seniors and gurus to be a child prodigy. “I wanted to learn Tabla but my father encouraged me to play sarangi. And today, I see how right he was” he recalls.

Sangeet has endeavoured to revive ancient musical styles by acquiring both the tantrakari and gayaki forms of playing the sarangi. An innovative musician, he also successfully employs a contemporary approach to playing the sarangi without compromising its traditional purity and essence and is at ease playing styles ranging from the nuances of pure classical Indian to modern contemporary music.

Presently based in the city of Mumbai, Pt. Sangeet maintains a busy schedule as a professional musician and has performed on numerous musical platforms both in India and overseas. Apart from performing in prestigious Indian festivals such as Sawai Gandharwa (Pune) and Sangeet Natak Academy, he has performed in the India Festival (Japan), Woodstack Festival (Poland), Royal Theatre (Australia) and for movies in Hollywood (Saint Dracula) and Bollywood.

A highly versatile performer, Sangeet has collaborated worldwide with musicians from various genres and styles to create a new musical language. He feels fortunate to have accompanied vocalists including Smt. Girija Devi, Pt. Channulal Mishra, Miahra bandhu, Ustad Raza Ali Khan, and many well-known dancers including Padmashree Vidushi Sitara Devi, Padmavibhushan and Pt. Birju Maharaj.

When asked, what it is like accompanying other artists he said, “I am so blessed. … You not only learn to play and to be careful and ready to improvise on stage but also how to be a true artist”, adding, “…artists like Pt. Birju Maharaj and Sitara Devi are like saints. They are so down to earth though so high in their art.”

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Taro Terahara is one of the leading musicians in the thriving and highly competitive Indian classical music scene in Japan. His beautiful bansuri (Indian bamboo flute) soars, swoops and transports listeners to realms of pure sound, both engaging the mind and touching the heart. He first appeared in Tibet2Timbuk2 as a guest artist on his first ever Australian tour in 2006, where he was also one of the hits of the Woodford Folk Festival with his wonderful Indian classical bansuri, including the New Year’s Dawn Hilltop Concert.

Beautiful Girl and the award-winning Crane Song feature bansuri by Taro.

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Tibet2Timbuk2 members

• Tenzin Choegyal (vocals, dranyen and flute)
• Marcello Milani (vocals, guitar and keyboard)
• Shen Flindell (tabla and percussion)

Guest Artists

• Peter Hunt (trumpet) tracks 5,6 & 7
• Lansana Camara (vocal/kora) track 9
• Taro Terahara (bansuri) tracks 1,3 & 7
• Bronwyn Richards (backing vocals) track 7

Thank yous
We would like to thank our families for their support and for still loving us even though we got home at ridiculous hours too many times. Paola, Isabella, Bronny, Tashi and Pemma – thank you! Deep respect to Shen’s tabla guru-jis, Debu Bhattacharya and the late Pandit Kaviraj Ashutosh Bhattacharya and many thanks to all our friends.

Thanks also to the Perfect Potion who got behind the project from the beginning (Sal Battaglia & Carolyn Stubbin), Joe Malone (JLM Audio), Terika, Peter Hunt, Lansana Camara and Taro Terahara.

Special thanks to Karma Phuntsok for the original artwork and Sharon Wood for all her hard work.

Production notes
Recorded at Studio45 (2007-08)
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Marcello Milani at Studio VoxBox
Artwork by Karma Phuntsok (www.karmaart.com)
Photographs by Carolyn Stubbin
Graphic Design by Choice Creative

A portion of proceeds goes to support Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala, India.  Thanks for your support.

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Composer and multi-instrumentalist Richard Grantham is a jack of all musical trades whose compositional and performing experience stretches from orchestras to bands to solo improvisation, encompassing an exceptionally broad range of classical, folk, popular, cabaret and experimental styles. He has created music for festivals, films, theatre, spoken word, and burlesque, as well as for the concert hall. His solo improvising act The Viola Cloning Project uses a loop recorder and other effects pedals to turn his customised five-string carbon-fibre viola into a one-man string and percussion orchestra, and has performed all around Australia.

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Shen Flindell started learning tabla in Melbourne from Sri Debapriya Bhattacharya in 1994 and soon went to the holy city of Varanasi in India to study under Pt. Kaviraj Ashutosh (“Ashu Babu”) Bhattacharya, a great tabla master of the Benares Gharana and senior disciple of the legendary Pt. Kanthe Maharaj. Since then he has become a well-known figure in Indian classical and world music circles, not just in Australia but also in Japan and of course Varanasi, India.

Since the first EthnoSuperLounge concert in 1998 (also featuring Tibet2Timbuk2 cohort Tenzin Choegyal), Shen has facilitated many successful cross-cultural collaborations, of which the latest is Tibet2Timbuk2. EthnoSuperLounge is all about union and transcendence through music and with Shen’s clear, beautiful tabla sound, his easy grooves and intuitive accompaniment there is always a free-spirited and open communication between all concerned.

Crane Song, Tso Marpo and Lotus Born feature tabla solos by Shen.

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Marcello Milani is a singer, songwriter & guitarist.

Ask anyone who has seen Marcello live, and they’ll tell you that here is an artist whose songs and voice are filled with those rare attributes, honesty and integrity.

Marcello has performed at many festivals including Woodford Folk Festival, Livid Festival, Big Day Out & the National Folk Festival to name just a few. He is best known to many as the voice of Brisbane icons, The Toothfaeries. Arguably one of the most acclaimed and popular bands in the city’s recent history, The Toothfaeries, with Marcello out front, not only helped inspire the growth of Brisbane’s booming music scene, they influenced a small army of artists who have emerged in their wake.

Marcello also performed and recorded with amazing Afro/Roots groups Zimbira & Masala Music and is now thoroughly enjoying Tibet2Timbuk2, his collaboration with Tenzin Choegyal, Shen Flindell and friends.

The CD “Music is Life” features Marcello’s song Little Things.  Beautiful Girl / Bhumo Zhema and Jhi Chung are examples of Marcello’s collaborative songwriting with Tenzin, while in Music Is Life / Menfanh he collaborates with Guinean musician Lansana Camara.

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