December 9, 2005
An evening with Prem Joshua, the great musician
[This article has a photo]
Prem Joshua has been my favorite musician from past few years, from the time I got introduced to his music. The depth in his music is incredible. A.R. Rehman has also been one of my favorite musicians but I rate Prem Joshua above him. I have seen various people (like TV channels) use his music as background music (of course, without his permission). He is pretty famous in western countries & I am sure he will become famous in India very soon. He is in fact pretty famous amongst people who are interested in spirituality in India.
You would believe it or not, yesterday (08/Dec/2005) I had the chance of meeting this great musician!
I met him at my friend Dinesh’s place and celebrated the evening with him. Prem Joshua was on his way to Mysore for a spiritual retreat for 10 days. Couple of my friends who also love Prem Joshua’s music had also come to visit him. On our request he played his Sitar (a travel Sitar, which is a smaller version of the Sitar). It was really a magical moment. After listening to him play Sitar I started feeling that Guitar (which I have always been interested to learn) is a much primitive instrument compared to Sitar. The Sitar music can take a person to a meditative state.
Prem Joshua gave me a CD of his latest unreleased album ‘Oriental Trance Society’ with his signature on it!! Actually he borrowed a CD from us, burned a copy for me on his Apple laptop (he is apparently an Apple freak!).
Prem Joshua playing his Travel Sitar
A brief about him (info I collected from him!): Prem Joshua was born in Germany. He has been into music from his childhood. He plays various instruments & also sings. Even before he visited India he used to love Indian music & after coming here he just fell in love with Indian music. He has mastered various Indian instruments like Sitar & Flute (I saw him playing these two). He has mastered both Indian & Western music & most of his music albums are a fusion of Indian & Western music (I simply love his albums). He is based in India now. He spends most of his time traveling all over the world giving music concerts.
To know more about him & to listen to his music (sample) visit his website http://www.premjoshua.com/
An interesting comment on Bangalore by Joshua: Prem Joshua asked me "What do you do?". I told him "I am a Software Engineer". He said "I think half of Bangalore is Software Engineers, the other half make Idli’s & Dosa’s for them & a few drive rickshaws!".
Comments
December 15, 2005
Vasuki said:
Good article! Being a music fanatic, I have around 15 GB of songs and I had never heard of Prem Joshua! If you have any mp3s of Prem Joshua, I want them.
Hey, I have a collection of songs from Karunesh. He is also from Germany and he was a Osho disciple. There is an album of sitar which is simply out of this world. Get it from me whenever we meet.
Shesh said:
I am sure you’ll love Prem Joshua music once you listen to him. To listen to his music visit his website and visit his album section.
This is a link to one of his albums http://www.premjoshua.com/desert.htm
December 17, 2005
Vasuki said:
I had mentioned about a collection of sitar songs, remember? Its not Karunesh, its Prem Joshua! I had downloaded it from some P2P software which had the name as Karunesh. The album is “Sky Kisses Earth” I listened to the songs in the site you gave. Liked many of them, if you have any mp3s or CDs of him, I will take that from you.
April 9, 2006
Amith Sharma said:
Hi,
I am a friend of Titus Moras and he introduced me this blog. After reading this article i must say you seem to be a great fan of not only Joshua but fusion (ofcourse indian plus western) in general. Having said this let me introduce you to another artist by name Chinmaya Dunster. If possible please listen to his Fengshui album. Its again fusion but the difference here is it is indian plus chinese. You are also welcome to suggest me and titus more of these music.
June 22, 2006
Sathya said:
Anyone fond of Prem Joshua must listen to his
album YATRI. He is A GENIUS . No doubt about it.
I am a lover of Deva Premal’s music. Prem is
equally enthralling. I now hear about Chinmaya
Dunster. Thanks Amith. Let me see where I can
hear clips of his Fengshui album!! If you have
some songs from the album please do mail me.
Thanks
June 28, 2007
balu said:
wow thats a great thing u met him…i’m also a big fan for his music and really it’s great that his music makes us think of meditation and it is very relaxing ones…i thought of meeting him but not possible for me i hope….anyway it’s really great sheshu
August 21, 2007
matteo said:
I am actually looking for the ‘Oriental Trance Society’ cd but doen’t seem to exist, even on PJ site; any idea where/how to get the 3 tracks?
Txs,
Matteo
August 28, 2007
Adil said:
Chetan and guys, since you like Prem Joshua and fusion music, I think you will really trip on Karsh Kale’s first album - “Realize”. Its a mind blowing mix of hindustani classical and electronica driven by an ecletic percussion. Its a terrific companion on long drives anywhere in India.