(06.13.05) Praveen Sharma went on a spiritual safari and collected his 9 best findings
on his debut album, Backed by Spirits; an album of celestial snapshots
filled with aural poetry sensitive enough to enhance a soothing
chamomile-induced hour long nap with headphones on that will leave your
subconscious feeling refreshed.
The album’s elegant opener, “A Sad Sad
Day,” depicts seraphim tossing forget-me-nots into the first traces of a
fiery desert sunrise, blissfully unaware that Sharma is there with his
Kirlian aura camera at the ready. “Float” and “Haze” both show dances of
light creating ripples in a calm mirror pool that are unaffected by this
world’s laws of physics. “Melody” has one spirit lulling another to sleep
while the drone in “Cecilia’s Fruit” explores the Technicolor dreams that
occupy the slumber of the other essence, if it’s possible, I suppose. “Real
Memories” has echoes of the gentle caress of breezes gliding across
knee-high prairies left behind by wandering souls while “New Lovers” passes
over an entwined pair that have found each other while enjoying an evening
of stargazing. “Please Begin” recalls a midnight conference of all these
apparitions calling to order, then “Piano in a Hurricane” signals the
meeting has adjourned and the attendees are headed back to their respective
otherworldly afterlife hobbies. These are the heavenly noises I hear when I
think of reincarnation and everything related to it, and they manage to
avoid becoming stale after having them on repeat in the background of my
entire day.
Backed by Spirits is out now on Neo Ouija.
