It seems that whenever there are times of crisis, any form of spiritually connected music, whether it is spiritual jazz, soul even rock, is on resurgence.
Indeed, these are times of crisis, and Toronto-London-based collective The Flowers of Hell are bringing back spiritual music on their sixth album Keshkhtaran, and it is actually a combination of spiritual jazz, soul, and rock.
The 20-person strong collective is spearheaded by Rishi Dhir (Elephant Stone, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Black Angels, Beck) on sitar, Montreal harpist Sarah Pagé, and avant-accordion legend Angel Corpus Christi (Suicide, Spiritualized, Dean Wareham), just to name three of those involved. The composer of the two elongated meditational compositions and the producer of the album is the band’s leader and composer Greg Jarvis.
Keshakhtaran, as explained, is an urban dictionary term for “seeking nirvana through meditation to sound, especially when you’re stoned” quite aptly describes.
As Jarvis explains, “Keshakhtaran began as a 40-minute ‘space guitar’ piece I’d done out of bits and bobs I’d been playing in my home studio for a girlfriend to meditate to in the months before Covid. During the pandemic, I found I couldn’t write anything new (nothing in, nothing out), but I pulled out the guitar track and started sending it to caged-up band members and friends to add layers to, and soon I was mixing and editing away, creating a sonic world to escape off into.”
And as the two instrumental compositions evolve, we get layers of elongated notes and spaces between them that weave, and slowly twist and turn, bringing almost perfect meditational pieces that exemplify any form of spiritual music.
