Bhaisajyaguru – Medicine Buddha is a collaboration with Lua Maria and Misha Mullov-Abbado.
Lua is a singer with a beautiful voice that I collaborated with on the album Phoenix Tree, which features her songs with duets for shakuhachi & Native American flute. It’s been 15 years since I last recorded anything with her and it’s so wonderful to hear the crystalline tones of her voice singing this mantra and the English words that accompany it.
”It was 15 years ago that Adrian and I began to record music and weave our musical voices together. So to reconnect and collaborate on his new album all these years later has been a total joy. I woke up from a dream with this Medicine Buddha mantra a couple of years ago and began to sing it daily with my own melody. A few months later, Adrian invited me to collaborate on his new version. Singing on this beautiful track was so joyful, with a clear prayer in my heart for healing for all life on earth.”
Misha has featured as a double bass player on many albums, including well-known medicine musicians such as Danit, Nessi Gomes, Ayla Schafer, Rainer Scheurenbrand and others. However, on this track it’s Antonio Moscato that plays the bass, and Misha has composed a gorgeous string quartet arrangement, recorded by Bridget O’Donell and Ben Michaels. It’s especially moving for me to hear these string parts alongside Lua’s voice, as Misha is the son of the late, great Italian conductor Claudio Abbado whose interpretations of Mahler symphonies made such an impact on me in my formative years when I was studying classical music, and the coming together of these two worlds – medicine mantra songs and classical strings – gives a freshness and depth to the music that touches me deeply. The track was recorded in stages in multiple locations. It started with the piano part that I recorded on a beautiful Yamaha grand piano at Urban Sound studios in Oslo. After that Lua’s voice was added at my studio in Dartington, then Antonio recorded his bass part in Calabria, Italy, Misha recorded the string parts at his studio in London, and I added the shakuhachi flute as the final layer.
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Bhaisajyaguru is the Medicine Buddha. The Lord of healing in Tibetan Buddhism. His mantra is a profound prayer for the release of suffering in all sentient beings. Known as the Blue Buddha, his skin is lapis lazuli blue – the archetypal colour of healing. In his left hand he holds a bowl of healing nectar, and in his right a medicine plant. As such he is considered a guardian spirit for all those working with teacher plants on the medicine path.
The Norwegian video artist Jonatan Ørting has made a beautiful lyric video for the track which you can see here.
As with all these releases, you can listen for free on Spotify and all the usual streaming platforms. But if you wish to support artists you can download the track on Bandcamp and make a donation there.
