Tibet2Timbuk2

Cieavash Arean has dedicated his life to music for more than forty years. His passion and love of music has attracted a strong audience in recent years. A multi-instrumentalist to say the least, the list of instruments that Cieavash performs include – Barbat (Oud), Kamanche, Nay, Tar, Flute, Accordion, Daff and Zorna. Cieavash is also a well accomplished vocalist.

Born in Tehran, Iran Cieavash has a love for traditional Middle Eastern music. These include – Turkish, Persian, Arabic and Armenian. He is self taught and plays by ear. Cieavash has performed all over the country, most recently, Woodford Folk Festival, Qld Multicultural Festival, Brisbane Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival and Brisbane Powerhouse. Whether it’s a live performance or working on music for a film, you can be sure than his heart is in every performance.

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♫ Listen to a sample playlist of “Music is Life” ♫

1	Beautiful Girl / Bhumo Zhema	Any face is beautiful when it carries a smile.	4:21
2	Ama	Whimsically beseeching a bird to carry a message of hope to Tibet .	4:58
3	Crane Song (Ngagpey Sungkey)	Despite deep attachment, a crane cannot survive on a frozen lake.	7:35
4	Tso Marpo	Blue, red, yellow and white are the colours attributed to the body, speech, heart and consciousness.	6:57
5	Lotus Born	Musical homage to the great compassionate mantra “Om Ma Ni Phad May Hum” (Jewel in the Lotus).	10:21
6	Little Things	The best things in life are the little things. For Isabella.	5:58
7	Dawey Wola	Under the moon, sharing our thoughts and dreams.	6:30
8	Jhi Chung	The bird in the Willow has the sweetest song.	4:33
9	Music Is Life / Menfanh	A song about Lansana’s beautiful village in Guinea where he used to play music by the river in the evening.	7:20

Download tracks or order the CD at our online store.

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• Beautiful Girl / Bhumo Zhema
  Collaborative Tenzin-Marcello upbeat feelgood country-and-eastern song
• Crane Song
  Beautiful piece based on traditional Western Tibetan folk song
  - Winner of 2008 QSong BEMAC Best World Music Award!!!
  

  Tibet2Timbuk2 receiving the 2008 QSong BEMAC World Music Award for Crane Song

Download tracks or order the CD at our online store.

Proceeds from sales go to support the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala, India.

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Menaka Visvanathan is a young local artiste who started learning classical Indian music from a tender age of 5 in the Sri Krishna Music Academy in Brisbane under the tutelage of her mother and principal of the school, Mrs. Vijaya Visvanathan. Through the music her mother has imparted to her, Menaka has experienced the beauty of divine love and surrender and endeavours to share these experiences with others through her vocal music. Menaka is also an exponent of Bharata- Natyam, or south Indian classical dance, graduating from this divine art in 2004. She has sung and danced at many community events, including Woodford Folk Festival, Sacred Music Festival, numerous charity events and has collaborated with many artistes, including Tenzin Choegyal.

Menaka has performed with Tibet2Timbuk2 on numerous occasions, notably at the CD Launch of “Music is Life” at Brisbane Powerhouse, 15th November 2008.

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Asim Gorashi is a musician who has traveled the long winding road that has earned him a unique background both as an educator and artist. A multi instrumentalist, Asim plays not only Oud and violin, he also sings and plays keyboards, the Arabic lute, Sudanese traditional guitar, mandolin as well as viola, and is one of the sweetest whistlers around. Asim Gorashi is a founding member of the band Sudanese Sound; he has also played in the band of Sudan’s best-loved singer, folk hero and revolutionary Mohammed Al-Amin. He now lives permanently in Brisbane where he is doing his post graduate studies.

Asim has performed with Tibet2Timbuk2 on numerous occasions, notably at Brisbane City Hall’s Main Auditorium in June 2008.

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Peter Hunt is a singer, trumpet player and composer. He often plays by the river and on the street raising his point of view to and through one of song and dance. He harmonises with a diversity of musicians and has a gift for translating feeling into melody. He writes and plays with jazz-reggae groups kooii and ruby blue.

Peter plays trumpet on 3 tracks on “Music is Life” – Lotus Born, Little Things and Dawey Wola.

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Taro Terahara is one of the leading musicians in the thriving and highly competitive Indian classical music scene in Japan. His beautiful bansuri (Indian bamboo flute) soars, swoops and transports listeners to realms of pure sound, both engaging the mind and touching the heart. He first appeared in Tibet2Timbuk2 as a guest artist on his first ever Australian tour in 2006, where he was also one of the hits of the Woodford Folk Festival with his wonderful Indian classical bansuri, including the New Year’s Dawn Hilltop Concert.

Beautiful Girl and the award-winning Crane Song feature bansuri by Taro.

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Tibet2Timbuk2 members

• Tenzin Choegyal (vocals, dranyen and flute)
• Marcello Milani (vocals, guitar and keyboard)
• Shen Flindell (tabla and percussion)

Guest Artists

• Peter Hunt (trumpet) tracks 5,6 & 7
• Lansana Camara (vocal/kora) track 9
• Taro Terahara (bansuri) tracks 1,3 & 7
• Bronwyn Richards (backing vocals) track 7

Thank yous
We would like to thank our families for their support and for still loving us even though we got home at ridiculous hours too many times. Paola, Isabella, Bronny, Tashi and Pemma – thank you! Deep respect to Shen’s tabla guru-jis, Debu Bhattacharya and the late Pandit Kaviraj Ashutosh Bhattacharya and many thanks to all our friends.

Thanks also to the Perfect Potion who got behind the project from the beginning (Sal Battaglia & Carolyn Stubbin), Joe Malone (JLM Audio), Terika, Peter Hunt, Lansana Camara and Taro Terahara.

Special thanks to Karma Phuntsok for the original artwork and Sharon Wood for all her hard work.

Production notes
Recorded at Studio45 (2007-08)
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Marcello Milani at Studio VoxBox
Artwork by Karma Phuntsok (www.karmaart.com)
Photographs by Carolyn Stubbin
Graphic Design by Choice Creative

A portion of proceeds goes to support Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala, India.  Thanks for your support.

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Lansana Camara (Sana) comes from a Griot family in Guinea, West Africa. Charged with the responsibility of carrying on his people’s culture and identity, he performs on kora, balafon, djembe and of course vocal. As a guest artist in Tibet2Timbuk2, he performs with kora and vocal. His beautiful voice and kora put a smile on everyone’s face and contribute a lovely rolling groove, wrapping up the Tibet2Timbuk2 journey in West African style.

In Music Is Life/Menfanh, the finale track on the “Music is Life” CD, Sana sings of his beautiful village in Guinea where he used to play music by the river in the evening.

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Shen Flindell started learning tabla in Melbourne from Sri Debapriya Bhattacharya in 1994 and soon went to the holy city of Varanasi in India to study under Pt. Kaviraj Ashutosh (“Ashu Babu”) Bhattacharya, a great tabla master of the Benares Gharana and senior disciple of the legendary Pt. Kanthe Maharaj. Since then he has become a well-known figure in Indian classical and world music circles, not just in Australia but also in Japan and of course Varanasi, India.

Since the first EthnoSuperLounge concert in 1998 (also featuring Tibet2Timbuk2 cohort Tenzin Choegyal), Shen has facilitated many successful cross-cultural collaborations, of which the latest is Tibet2Timbuk2. EthnoSuperLounge is all about union and transcendence through music and with Shen’s clear, beautiful tabla sound, his easy grooves and intuitive accompaniment there is always a free-spirited and open communication between all concerned.

Crane Song, Tso Marpo and Lotus Born feature tabla solos by Shen.

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