Shammi Pithia
Album: Cosmic
Label: Cosmic
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.shammipithia.com/

Shammi Pithia is a creative composer and producer, in the genre of world-electronica, influenced by Nitin Sawhney. He has performed his music at Glastonbury and a single from this CD was on the BBC Asian Network playlist. 'Cosmic' is Shammi's musical take on the bigger picture, intended as a connection to the universe, and 'Cosmos' is an acronym for 'Creation of Something Meaningful Inside Chaos'.

Shammi has, quite simply, created a thing of beauty. The music is upbeat, positive, and relaxing, but always vibrant, and at times quite profound. It has a flow, like a river of rich contrasting sounds.

The opening track, 'Nothing Else' features the exotic husky Bansuri flute, to quite dominant percussion, giving way to the dreamy quality of 'Discovery', where the flute soaring over the piano made me think of birds flying over misty mountains. 'Pursuit of Happiness' features the Indian/nu-soul voice of up and coming Sonna Rele. 'Ankkaha' displays the rich asian tones of Jatanil Banerjee and Ambika Jois and the vocal tracks are totally in synch with the driving swirling music, which seamlessly merges into the widescreen poignant 'Snapshots' which could be an effective filmscore.

'Go' is a great showcase for Shammi's East/West fusion. In fact I also detected Chinese, and Flamenco undertones, but Shammi's evocative piano phrasing is never far away. 'Road to Paradise' begins almost like a stringed classical piece but quickly develops an insistent beat. His hallmark is the sheer variety of moods within each track, always holding the listener's interest and enjoyment, delighting the ears and the heart.

'Under the Stars' is a gorgeous track with Sabiyha's folk voice of purity, and the final track, 'Poem Without Words' begins with a Spanish guitar, soon enhanced by a rich flute sound that creates mental images of a moorish sunset. A percussive beat grows, and then stops, leaving you bathed in early evening sunlight. It is that good.

'Cosmic' is an awesome musical creation, which I loved listening to, and which deserves to be widely played, owned and enjoyed.

Kath Reade