press release
Mantrasphere is a unique new music project distilled from zen meditation and yet accessible to all. Musician Hugh Carroll has integrated elements of the modern, western singer/songwriter genre with ancient Eastern Buddhist mantras to produce something unique, touching and uplifting.
Barry Andrews (Shriekback/XTC) produced the album and also lent his distinctive keyboards and musical guidance.
“The whole thing seemed to appear fully formed and with that quality you get from the best art that ‘it could not be any other way’.” (BA)
A serious fall whilst working as a circus performer in 1991 lead Hugh to a long and ongoing process of recovery, the traces of which resonate through the music. Hugh developed a deep love of Buddhism which enabled him to cope with major trauma and illness.
The genre-defying collision of Mantrasphere is not anodine ‘relaxation’ music but a passionate search for the universal and transcendent in the midst of the personal and tragic. He has been a zen practitioner for 17 years and this album is the artistic manifestation of his inner journey.
A movement between anguish and clarity underlies these 12 pieces that have emerged, paradoxically, from silence.
“Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.”: Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
