Black Swan Sounds Re-issues Classic Ambient Album RESONANCE by Adham Shaikh; Release Set for August 13 in Both Physical & Digital Formats

By: Jun. 30, 2013
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Adham Shaikh is a prolific, Juno Award-winning Canadian composer, producer, sound designer and DJ, whose uniquely potent global sounds have graced stage, screen and many a crowded dance floor. Weaving distinctive sonic tapestries with his music, Shaikh takes listeners beyond time and place with blissful, evocative, ever-evolving blends of deep world music grooves, tribal rhythms, complex dub and lush downtempo atmospheres.

The artist's acclaimed Resonance album, a masterpiece of soothing ambient soundscapes, was originally released on Sonic Turtle, Shaikh's own indie label, in 2010, but is now out of print. This summer, Boulder-based Black Swan Sounds will re-issue the classic album in both CD and digital format - with the digital version enhanced with three previously unreleased bonus tracks.

Much of the material on Resonance was born from Shaikh's extensive work scoring original soundtracks for varied film and TV productions, including projects for National Geographic, Disney (Sacred Planet), Canada's National Film Board (Fierce Light) and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Secrets: A Parent's Guide to the Teen Sexual Revolution, for which he won a Leo Award nomination for Best Musical Score in a Documentary Program).

Most tracks were at first conceived on piano as he watched footage for which his music had been commissioned and then fleshed out with myriad electronic effects to create the spacious sound he wanted to achieve. Through his extensive experience scoring music to pictures, Shaikh noticed similarities between creating subtle, passive atmospheres supportive of the images, and the very essence of ambient music - a genre he had explored in his early recordings during the 1990s, preceding his metamorphosis into a world class DJ spinning global electronica.

Over a period of three years, he amassed a collection of tracks quite different from his previous several albums. On some, inspired by his work on a Yoga for Cancer Survivors project, Shaikh intentionally sought to incorporate healing elements, "encoding" sacred geometry, the Fibonacci sequence and devotional chants from the Far East into his compositions. He observed forms in nature, using them as a basis for creating healing patterns based on natural growth systems. The collection elicited such an overwhelmingly positive response from colleagues, teachers, students, healers, yoga practitioners and parents (who reported the music's calming effect on their children), that he decided it needed to be released. Its dreamy, exotic ambience sounds as fresh today as it did when first released, and Black Swan is proud to re-introduce this classic work to the public once again.

The re-issue of Resonance marks the beginning of Shaikh's relationship with Black Swan Sounds. A collection of Shaikh's dance music - much of it refreshed or remixed by Shaikh himself is planned for autumn release, with a set of his music selected to accompany yoga practice coming in early 2014.

Adham Shaikh has shared the stage with such diverse artists as Michael Franti, Ganga Giri, Mad Professor, Gaudi and Nickodemus, and performed at such major North American electronic music festivals as Shambhala, Symbiosis, Lightning In A Bottle, and Basscoast, as well as at France's Hadra, New Zealand's Luminate, Dakini in Japan and Waveform in the UK. He will tour North America this summer, with tour dates as follows:

July 12 - Whistler, British Columbia: Believe Freedom Festival

July 20 - Denver, Colorado: Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
(w/Kaminanda, Kalya Scintilla, Temple Step, Bird of Prey and Whitebird)

July 25 - Asheville, North Carolina: Gratify Music and Arts Festival

August 1 - Merrit, British Columbia: Basscoast Festival

August 8 - Nelson, British Columbia: Shambhala Music Festival

August 15 - Logan, Ohio: Rootwire Music and Arts Festival



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