A Mantra CD bringing the World a little closer together Inspired by years of travel as a solo musician meeting and playing with talented musicians in Europe, USA & Brasil, THE GLOBAL BHAKTI PROJECT brings together a collective family of Bhakti Yogi’s (devotional yoga) that David Lurey has met over the last seven years as a traveling Yoga teacher & troubadour. David recorded guitar and vocal tracks in September of 2011 and invited 19 different musical friends to contribute to the 9 song project by recording their layers and sending them back through the internet to weave the web of music and devotion without being physically together. With 7 mantras and 2 ‘heart songs’ all learned and inspired in various settings, the music and collective effort is meant to offer listeners a journey into modern mantra singing with upbeat global melodies, inspiring instrumentation and heart felt vocals. The words to the mantras are sacred Sanskrit prayers and the repetition is designed to help transcend the distractions of the mind as the word Mantra literally translates (Man = mind / Tra = transcend). David also sings a Hebrew song; Shalom, which is a blessing for children to a melody from Jai Uttal and an English affirmation, Light of My Soul which comes from the Kundalini Yoga tradition. Over a 2 month period David gathered several dozen files with melody variations, solos and interpretations and worked with Stefan Heger of FishEyeMusic in Cologne, Germany to create the final mixes. Literally, the album took form via digital file exchanges, skype calls and hours of listening and filtering out the best pieces to add to the songs. Each songs has its own tale to tale through the mantra represented and where he learned them. 1) Om Namo Bhagavate: An upbeat melody learned at The Dutch Yoga festival Terschelling and is a mantra for Liberation (or “Mukti Mantra”) 2) Chandra Shekara: David’s original melody inspired while leading a Yoga Retreat in 2004 in Jamaica. A Rastaman Yogi knew the mantra and asked for a melody to sing to... this is what arrived 3) Tumi Bhaja Re Mana: Learned on a night of Diwali, the Festival of Light, by the Ganges River in Rishikesh, India... from an Indian who just starting singing it and asked if I could play along. 4) Light of My Soul: From the Kundalini tradition with a motivating melody learned at the Dutch Yoga Festival Terschelling. 5) Jaya Sita Ram: This joyful melody to one of the most widely recited mantras is from fellow troubadour Yoga teacher Clayton Horton. 6) Gate Gate: A Buddhist mantra calling the singer to move ‘Beyond… Beyond the Beyond…. Where our souls sing the same song.’ 7) Om Hrim Namah Shivaya: A very transcendental melody calling forth the balance of formless divine energy and the material existence we have chosen. 8) Shalom: The melody is from Jai Uttal, David’s teacher and mentor for over 10 years. It is a blessing over children asking for protection and light to guide them. 9) Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu: David sings with his wife on this melody learned in Brasil in 2005 as they pray for all beings everywhere to be happy and free. It is David’s hope that listeners will join The Global Bhakti Project by singing and playing along and he has made the chords, lyrics and translations to the mantras available on his website at www.findbalance.net/globalbhaktiproject. Based in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, David travels and teaches Yoga courses extensively around Europe and Brasil and from time to time returning to his home in America… always with his guitar in his hands, a song on his mind and the desire to sing ecstatically.