This Dewdrop World

Suvarna is an English singer and violinist whose third album is a collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and producer Martin Phillipps (known for his previous work with such artists as Was (Not Was), Soul II Soul, and Khalèd). With help from percussionist and keyboardist Ravi and tabla player Ty Burhoe, Suvarna and Phillipps have created a stunningly beautiful album of contemplative devotional pop music, all of it original and using lyrics based on mantras and snippets of commentary from various Buddhist and Hindu texts. This is the kind of thing that could easily come across as cloying exoticism or mushy new age sophistry, but Suvarna's voice is so unaffected, the melodies so sweet, and the arrangements so nicely balanced between complexity and simplicity that the effect is instead one of perfectly realized East-West fusion; the results are equally well suited to meditation or long car trips. The title track and "What You Are to Me" (on which Suvarna sounds uncannily like Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser) are the most gently powerful songs here; "Deniz" and "Nanak's Song," while also lovely, are maybe just a bit too long to sustain their ideas. Highly recommended overall.