The German-born Gen X “chant”-euse and Miten whose Indian-style music could not exist without the Beatles
October 2006 | Art & Soul
The Yoga of Sacred Sound and Chant
Deva Premal Plays San Francisco
By Todd Spencer
No matter how many notes he played or how long his songs rang and droned, Ravi Shankar held his audience rapt. In a similar way, so does HBO-documented, celebrity-worshipped superstar Deva Premal’s so-soothing-it’s-ecstatic style of “chant,” albeit with much shorter songs with a lot fewer notes.
The sonic phenom has brought ancient Sanskrit chants to a whole new audience by melding four elements: Eastern and Western traditions; and two very different but well-fitted collaborators in Deva and her partner in life and music, British singer-songwriter Miten. Born Andy Desmond, he put out his own solo albums in England in the ‘70s and lent his songs to The Kinks and Fleetwood Mac. The greying singer brings not only apt, thoughtful, classic rock restraint on guitar and traditional Indian instruments, but silken-yet-masculine harmonies that intertwine with his young wife’s the way their hearts did 15 years ago when they first met at a retreat in India.
Harmony between East and West, young and old, male and female is integral to their music’s overall sound, but the focus on stage is on the lean, blonde woman with the “soft” presence, and voice that blends earth and air to resonate like the body of Shankar’s sonorous sitar.
The pair perform early this month at the Herbst Theatre, accompanied by Manose, a Nepalese bansuri flute player.
It’s a rare sort of concert that Deva Premal gives — “soothing the discord and cacophony of everyday life” — but don’t expect to applaud. She invites her audiences to be introspective, not demonstrative, even though her music is both.
Deva Premal and Miten perform Friday, October 6th at the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness (at McCallister). Tickets at cityboxoffice.com or 415-392-4400. Seats are $60/$45/$30. Also see ciis.edu/publicprograms for details on Premal and Miten’s devotional singing workshop in San Rafael on Sunday, October 8th.
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