Love of Ages is the debut album from
Sheetal, formerly of the
Zen Cowboys. In
Love of Ages, she attempts to mix her Indian upbringing with Western musical forms from her American training. The basic idea is to take one of the revered ragas and mix in some aspects of Western harmony and theory as needed. Surprisingly, the result of the mix between East and West is pretty close to something Celtic.
Sheetal lays out some ethereal vocals, often moving between various Indian languages and English as appropriate and putting a base of synths, drum machines, and tanpuras under the vocals. The album overall rarely chooses one style or the other, but stays on the middle road, which makes it a fine example of new age world music in many ways. The trance of
Zen Cowboys is present to some degree, and aspects of both cultures are present. The key is the mix, and this album comes near the perfect points -- not quite reaching the full potential of fusion, but circling around that epicenter. ~ Adam Greenberg