White Sun Recording Features Counterpoint Vocals And Superb Production

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The sun is the source of life, and a nurturing, healing force. The most pure and powerful radiance is the White Sun, also the name of a modern musical group that believes in the power of mantras. The music on their self-titled debut album is world-fusion combining contemporary instrumentation with sounds from the past making a unique fresh blend. Their first album reached #1 on the iTunes World Music Chart in less than 12 hours and entered the Billboard World Albums Chart at #10 its first week.

Their recording features mantras that they most-often sing, rather than chant, with instrumentation that ranges from the traditions of India (gong, tabla, mridanga, harmonium) to the modern (guitars, electronic keyboards, a live string section with five violins and three cellos). The music also contains orchestral harp, Celtic harp, frame drum, taiko drums, bass, banjo, mandolin and metallophone (tuned metal bars struck with a mallet).

"Foremost we want people to listen to and enjoy the music, " explains White Sun singer Gurujas. "If that happens, the listeners may also experience the scientific healing benefits of the mantras, and the way the sounds affect the vibrations of the body, mind and spirit. According to metaphysical laws, mantras create an energetic reaction inside the brain and body. Our primary goal is to deliver that energy, and we have found the best way to help people access it is by placing the mantras in an attractive musical setting that appeals to contemporary audiences."

White Sun is comprised of two yogis (dedicated Kundalini Yoga practitioners and teachers) and a multiple-Emmy-Award-winning musician and producer. One yogi, Harijiwan (pronounced huddy-gee-vin), plays the gong and serves as the spiritual leader. The other yogi, Gurujas (pronounced goo-roo-jahs), is the singer, songwriter and harmonium player. The third member is Adam Berry, a multi-instrumentalist and composer who has written and recorded music for major television productions from Disney, Dreamworks, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and HBO. All three arranged the album with Berry also producing. They are joined on the recording (and often in concert) by two special guests: renowned tabla player Abhiman Kaushal (a music professor at UCLA who has recorded with Ravi Shankar, Philip Glass, Shujaat Kahn and Katayoun Goudarzi); and Arjuna O'Neal, who plays a traditional drum from India called a mridanga, and who teaches drum classes. O'Neal started a non-profit organization called The Share Necessities, which works to support the education and well-being of homeless children. White Sun has done, and will continue to do, benefit events for this important cause.

The mantras are sung by Gurujas. "Mantras have been passed down orally through the ages going back some 5, 000 years, " she explains. "The singing on this album is in a 600-year-old written language called Gurmukhi which derives from the even-older Sanskrit with Persian influences. This language is also used in naad yoga, a science of how sound vibrations affect the body, mind and spirit through the use of mantra, resulting in chemical changes in the brain."

The music is available on CD or as digital downloads from many leading online sales sites including iTunes, Amazon, CDbaby and numerous others. When the recording was released for pre-orders it immediately shot to #1 on the iTunes World Music sales chart which attests to the group's growing popularity from concerts and word-of-mouth. For more information about the group and the album, go to their website (whitesun dot com).

The album begins and ends with the a capella songs "Trinity" and "Ardas Choir." "Trinity, " featuring Gurujas's over-dubbed vocals, combines three different entwining mantras. "Ardas Choir" was recorded live-in-the-studio with a 20-person choir joining Gurujas to create an inside-a-cathedral spiritual sound. Other music on the album ranges from Harijiwan performing two solo gong tracks, to the upbeat, modern-sounding, pop-style of "Rakhe Rakhanhar." On several tunes, such as "Ong Namo" and "Mul Mantra, " Gurujas sings both the lead vocal as well as a counterpoint vocal. The very slow and gentle "Guru Ram Das" spotlights Gurujas' soprano voice gently floating above a string section.

"We specifically wanted to take the words of traditional mantras and write melodies and arrange the music so that they would become songs with a chorus and verses, with various sections within the structure, and with sounds that are enjoyable and conducive to repeated listenings, " states Gurujas. "Mantras are avenues to experience the infinite energy that they contain. It is in this pure energy field that we conquer our imagined disabilities and experience the flow of universal consciousness."

In addition to their music careers, Harijiwan and Gurujas also both teach Kundalini Yoga all over the world, sometimes incorporating their music into their teachings. They are disciples of Yogi Bhajan, who introduced Kundalini Yoga to the West in 1969 and began teaching it publicly. Harijiwan received the science of Kundalini Yoga from the Mahan Tantric Yogi Bhajan and directly served the teacher for many years as they traveled extensively. Now Harijiwan is Gurujas' teacher. She says, "My songs come from Yogi Bhajan's teachings of Kundalini Yoga, an experientially-based scientific system that incorporates joy, fulfillment and love. I have learned that happiness is a direct result of finding the right vibrational frequency."

Harijiwan has been teaching Kundalini Yoga since 1975. He has solo recordings - Resound (a gong CD) and Kundalini Meditation: Guided Chakra Practices to Activate the Energy of Awakening, and many Kundalini teachings videos on his youtube channel and website (harijiwan dot com). He has been playing the gong for many decades. "The sound of the gong allows us to move beyond the boundaries of the mind, " he explains. "Nothing compares to the gong's ability to create in the human the Divine sound, and causes the sound to resound within as perfect and productive space vibrations."

Gurujas started singing when she was very young, and has been singing professionally since she was 11 and a member of the Cleveland Orchestra's Children's Chorus which often gave performances in front of large audiences. She also began taking piano lessons as a child. In addition, in recent years she has studied with well-known vocal coach Seth Riggs (Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson). Having sung all her life, it was natural for Gurujas to sometimes incorporate her singing into her yoga teachings. She recorded and released several singles under her name before forming White Sun.

Adam Berry is a two-time Emmy-Award winner (with nine nominations) as well as a BMI Award winner. A composer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer, Berry has created music that has been heard by millions of people on TV shows such as "South Park, " "Monsters vs Aliens, " "The Penguins of Madagascar, " "Buzz Lightyear: Star Command, " "Hercules" (the animated series), "The Sarah Silverman Program" (and her HBO Special), "Kim Possible" and many others.

White Sun special guest Abhiman Kaushal is considered one of the leading tabla players in the world. He toured with Ravi Shankar and recorded three albums with him. Kaushal also has performed with Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Rais Kahn, Smt. Lakshmi Shankar, Jean-Pierre Ramphal and Tito Puente, among others. Another White Sun guest, drummer Arjuna, plays a wide assortment of drums from around the world and believes "drumming can help tap into the spirit-self which can heal and replenish the physical body, reawaken the higher conscious of the mind and rejuvenate our body to heal itself."

“We are at an era in world history when people especially want to expand their consciousness, ” says Gurujas. “People want more in their lives and one way to get that is through the technology of sound. Millions of people are listening to mantras all over the world because mantras are a way to increase our consciousness as human beings. While the popular music of our time can be moving, we believe that mantras penetrate much deeper into a listener’s spirit and consciousness, and can affect their lives in a very real and positive way.”

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