"Listening to this record has been for me the most beautiful morning in the world." (Alain Corneau, French film director) "Profound Sanskrit poems, a clear and suave voice, a deep-sounding instrument effortlessly exploring every microtone, a subtle and non-intrusive keyboard, no tabla, no tanpura… The blend is audacious and very successful." (India Today) Shankara (aka Adi Shankaracharya), born in Kerala in the 8th century AD, is the most influential Indian mystic since the time of the Upanishadic seers, Buddha and Mahavira (5th cent. BC). Besides his voluminous philosophical corpus, Shankara has left behind a few poems which, we believe, come closest to describing that mystical experience on which he built his philosophical system: the fundamental unity of the Self and the Transcendent Being. They have the freshness of immediacy and spontaneity. The six poems performed here must be counted among the greatest treasures of the human spirit. Their theme is self-realization. They sing of a state that is Bliss, Consciousness and Being. A state that is total freedom and transcends death. That is man's real Self, buried deep within. Title track: Atmashataka (The Song of the Soul)