Truly Devotional

BY: STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Oct 13, KOCHI, INDIA (NEW INDIA PRESS) — Music to all ears. Haribol, a music album featuring devotional songs is all poised for a global release. And the man behind it? Tapovan Narayanan, a music teacher at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Kochi.

The cassette for global Malayalees is produced by a group called Friends of Lord Krishna (FOLK), which functions under the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

The venture is one among ISKCON’s projects to raise funds for its Rs 10 crore Guruvayur project - Bhaktivedanta cultural complex. The project will have state-of-the-art amenities such as a museum, a multimedia theatre and Gita Academy.

A unique feature of Haribol is that rare instruments such as ghadashinkari, rooncha, dhun, brahmatalam, khol and dhamoga are employed in its composition, says music director Narayanan.

“The nine songs of the album are sung by P Jayachandran, Madhu Balakrishnan, Unni Menon, Sujatha and myself. The lyrics are penned by Chowallur Krishnankutty, Ramesan Nair and P C Aravindan.”

Narayanan learned the first lessons of music from T P Govinda Pisharodi, and later passed ‘Sangeetha Vidwan’ with a first class from Central College of Carnatic Music.

“It was during that time that I happened to meet renowned music director and violinist L Vaidyanathan, which proved a turning point in my life.” Narayanan got the golden chance to learn more about music under the tutelage of the great master for seven years, which brought out the talent in him as a music director as well.

“My grandfather Swami Tapovan was the guru of Swami Chinmayananda, and it is the former’s name that I have now adopted for my music ventures,” says Narayanan.

“Though Sree Vaani was my first independent work, it was Navagraha Stotrams sung by Madhu Balakrishnan, Vandana and myself that received wide acclaim.”

“The cassette Harivandanam gave me a major break. A large number of copies of the cassette which has devotional songs in praise of Lord Ayyappa, Sri Krishna and Narasimhamoorthy have been sold in my own village itself,” says Narayanan, who hails from Kuzhalmannam at Palakkad.

“Thanks to its stupendous success, ISKCON decided to entrust the new project Haribol to me.”

Narayanan, who is passionate about devotional songs, has sung a few lines in films such as Daivathinte Vikrithikal and a Tamil film Dasaratham, the music for which was composed by Vaidyanathan.