As the clock ticks down towards the release of Michael Beck’s album, Surrender, you start to understand a lot about the man and his music. His music is meditative yet wonderfully melodic. It has a higher spiritual purpose but operates with its feet planted firmly on the ground. It wanders many genres – folk, pop, rock, and numerous culturally specific sounds – yet the result is always a concise sound and continuous style, one unique to Michael.
And “Faith & Courage,” his 6th single from the album, is the pinnacle to date of all those elements and aspects coalescing and coming together. In fact, if this were the first song you heard of his, it would immediately reveal so much about Michael’s musical mission from just this first encounter.
Much of the album to follow is an attempt to share, in song form, what he has learned over the last four years, a period where Michael has experienced many transformations and has connected with his inner strength and intuition—a personal experience captured as a sonic teaching.
Here, over Latin grooves and Renato Anesi’s soulful guitar licks, hushed tone,s and harmonious sonics, he collaborates with vocalist Satyadev Barman to infuse Vedic mantras and ancient wisdom into lyrics that invoke courage, faith, and universal guidance.
Surrounding himself with some familiar faces, we are treated to Txai Fernando’s subtle piano interludes and Diego Francisco’s delicate bass lines, the rhythmic addictions and energy of masterful percussion courtesy of Uriel Seri and Giitam’s melodic vocals.
Music from a specific culture or tradition is often termed world music. I would suggest that given the many strands and infusions that run through Michael’s music, not to mention the array of different cultures and countries the various players represent, his is global music, universal music, perhaps even cosmic music! Music for a new age and a new mindset.
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