Featured Tune: "Reminder feat. Jasdeep Singh" from Joel Veena
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Joel Veena, the award-winning maestro of the Hindustani slide guitar, is back with "Reminder feat. Jasdeep Singh," from his latest album Cardinal, a progressive, thunderous, and utterly unique fusion that isn't your everyday rock riffage, but something deeper, more ancient, and powerfully resonant.
Let's talk about the gear in this sonic engine room. Joel Veena, born Joel Eisenkramer, is a virtuoso who commands a 20-stringed Indian slide guitar. Think about that for a second. The textural possibilities are immense, and he wields this beast from his Vermont studio, Root Cellar Sound, to create a sound that is meditative and fiercely intense. On this track, he isn't flying solo. He’s joined by UK-based artist and researcher Jasdeep Singh, who brings the rare and colossal jori drum into the mix. The jori isn't your average kit; it's a deeper-toned, large-sized relative of the tabla, historically used to accompany Sikh devotional music and the ancient, revivalist dhrupad style. This collaboration isn't only a cool idea; it's the first-ever recorded meeting between the Indian slide guitar and the jori. That’s a rock-worthy fact right there.
"Reminder" is an original composition by Eisenkramer, and you can feel the conversation across continents, recorded at Guilford Sound in Vermont and Dhrupad Dhamar studio in the UK, and mixed by Joel himself. Eisenkramer states his music is "an offering to the world" and a "process" to transform himself to be more in tune with humanity and the natural forces. "Reminder" embodies this. It’s a track that feels like it has a mission, a deep, vibrational purpose that goes beyond mere entertainment. It’s for the benefit of all, for all of time.
"Reminder feat. Jasdeep Singh" is a reminder in itself—a reminder that rock and roll isn’t just three chords and an attitude. It’s about exploration and the fearless blending of sounds to create something new and earth-shaking. Joel Veena and Jasdeep Singh have built a bridge between traditions and kicked up a hell of a racket crossing it.