Adham Shaikh

Vancouver, Canada

Adham Shaikh is a very talented composer, musician, and producer introduced to me on Stage Five at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. Then Creative Director, Dugg Simpson put together a series of workshops featuring a diverse selection of music and dance.

Adham Shaikh is a very talented composer, musician, and producer introduced to me on Stage Five at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. Then Creative Director, Dugg Simpson put together a series of workshops featuring a diverse selection of music and dance.

The Dreamtree Project was an Indian dub fusion collective weaving a magic carpet ride of classical Indian raga afloat a dub cloud of swirling tabla, mystical flute, spacey beats and booming bass lines. Beyond notions of East meets West, the Dreamtree Project conjured a space for all who long to be seduced by the power of music and communal enlightenment.

The Dreamtree Project included Adham Shaikh who had been producing music for 18 years with his keen ear towards world music, weaving the sounds of India, Bali, Australia, Africa, Jamaica, the Middle East, Slovakia, Scandinavia, Turkey, and North America, into all aspects of his production.

Mystical! Although not seen during the performance, these golden balls appeared in each of the photos when developed.

2010 offered two new albums by Adham Shaikh, Universal Frequencies and Resonance.

Universal Frequencies is a convergence of global beats, melodies, and collaboration of an eclectic array of world musicians. Water prayers and desert caravans, Russian flute and African drum, saxophone and electronic synth, water and wind, combined to create the supreme symphony of global fusion. The listener will definitely be unable to sit still; the invitation to get up dance will be impossible to ignore.

This is an album which takes the listener on a worldwide tour of musical possibilities. Featuring Prakesh Sintakke vocals. we set off from an exotic corner of India through Crossroads Part 1, our travels take us to the "north, south, east, and west", discovering the "love and peace, hope and reverence" as a universal citizen. The Rasta dub Water Prayer reminds us we are all children of Mother Earth; and water is the lifeblood we share. Carpet Breaker is a fun, foot-tapping track with an eastern European feel and a crazy selection of beats and instrumentation. Rug Rippen continues with a Russian air with a bit of brass and clarinet which persuades the listener to enjoy the piece with some freestyle dance moves. With Sonicturtles Coupe Decale, Reprise and Kundalini Fuel we are off to Africa with the more primitive dun dun, djembe, and talking drums leading the way to the synths and beats of today's technology. We find ourselves on a journey through a desert via the next two tracks Desert Dub and Desert Caravan. Both are lovely pieces to experience, full of interesting sounds, haunting vocals, deeply felt. New Day and The Climb feature Adham's synth and beat programming, modern music for a modern world. We come full circle with the final track Crossroads Part 2, returning to the far east and the vocals by Prakesh Sintakke.

Most of the tracks began as compositions for film and multimedia projects. The music also represents a return to Adham's ambient roots of his compositional journey. The album begins in the mid-1990s, with Journey to the Sun, Drift and Realignment. Through the art of scoring to picture Adham noticed similarities between creating minimal atmospheres, supportive of the images, and the very concepts of ambient music. The music did not attract too much attention to itself, but provided a backdrop or emotional landscape or feeling without being too obvious.

Adham had created a large collection of material through three years of compositions which was much more ambient than the previous three albums of world fusion he had produced. As he shared this collection with friends, and as they listened, it became obvious the collection needed to be released.

As Adham began letting his friends (mothers, yoga teachers, healers, students) listen to the music he received feedback about how calm it made people (and children) feel, how perfect it was to do yoga to, how it allowed deeper thinking during studies, how healers used it for body work as it: "created a really soft gentle vibe that wasn't new agey but very relaxing." Adham also noticed how, when he put the music on while driving in the car, his children would relax and fall asleep almost instantly.

The particular vibrations in this music spans many disciplines and types of usages that were beyond the original cinematic nature of the music. The people that Adham had originally shared the music with all reported an energetic connection to the sounds that resulted in relaxed calm states, a reduction in stress, general well being, as well as an increased deep sleep and dreaming.

Adham is happy to share this collection and hopes that listeners will also enjoy the films that inspired the music.

The Sinixt: Bringing Home the Bones

A docudrama by Virginia Frobe about a crucial time in Sinx't history. The movie speaks powerfully through contrasts: the splendour of the Slocan Valley against the harsh realities of the Sinx't situation as the most marginalized and disenfranchised tribe in Canada: through the calm profound dignity of the Stinx't themselves in first hand interview and re-enactments. Their voices strengthened by traditional and original songs.

A selection of CDs from musician Adham Shaikh are available for purchase at Amazon.

Adham Shaikh / Sonicturtle

Booking is available for the following:

DJ sets playing WORLD FUION GROOVES or CHILLOUT

Composing / Sound Design /Remixing

Production/engineering of your project

Please e-mail Adham Shaikh for booking information

booking@sonicturtle.com