Generally, when we hear the term “echo,” it invokes the idea of lingering auditory sensations generated by the reflection of sound waves. Yet when veteran viola player and Billboard charting new age/classical artist Karen Olson – also a longtime professional sound healer - chose to title her new album Divine Echoes, she had a much deeper, metaphorical and divinely connected meaning in mind.
Karen has established herself as a noted authority in helping people achieve emotional and physical well=being, using her unique transformational method to help people find peace, freedom and the power to live their dreams. The title of her award-winning book encapsulates the scope of her mission over the years with hundreds of grateful clients: SoundPath: Using the Power of Sound and Silence for Health, Harmony and Happiness. In many ways, Divine Echoes is a masterful work that ties the clinical aspects of her clinical work together with the expansive world of her musical creativity.
From the exquisite elegance she creates in tandem with the tender, hypnotic piano of Art Labriola on the opening track “Sunbeam Smiles” through the epic and ethereal, nine and half minute vocal choir driven exultation “Angel Anthems,” the collection is a continuously glorious manifestation of Karen’s core personal wisdom and understanding about our connection to the divine. While there is a shimmering melodic beauty in all her lead melodies and fascinating variations in tempos and the surrounding sonic ambiences and energies throughout, each note of melody and harmony, every nuance of soulful symmetry, and the paths these open to a deeper appreciation of nature and spirituality are in service to Karen’s impactful overriding concept.
“Nature itself is a reflection, an echo, of the Divine Creator,” she says. “I believe that humans, too, are reflections and echoes of Divine Creation, especially when our intentions are pure. My strong belief, combined with a well-proven healing gift that I channel through my music, has shown me that music has the power to shift our inner states. Just as nature is perfectly balanced – like the Fibonacci sequence – when we resonate with the harmonies in music, the vibrations ‘tune’ us and bring us into balance. In this way, as Divine echoes, we are better able to connect with our true selves and follow our highest path. I have a very deep connection and love for nature, added to my spiritual connection and love for music. This project brings it all together.”
Though Divine Echoes is perhaps best experienced straight through as a fascinating, transcendent and stylistically eclectic 35-minute journey – and truly any of the six pieces serve well as compelling entry points – the emotional core of the album is Pilgrimage Prayer, which integrates the personal and heartfelt nature of St. Francis’ iconic “The Peace Prayer” into a four minute meditation featuring dreamy ambience, some of Karen’s most passionate and emotionally stirring viola playing, electronic tribal grooves and the gorgeous vocal intonations of her chief collaborator Michel Pascal.
The importance of “The Pilgrimage Prayer” as a centerpiece cannot be overstated. Karen originated the project as one centered around that piece, which was inspired by the St. Francis Prayer, which of course is affiliated with its namesake who was renowned for his deep connection to animals and nature. As she did more research, she learned that St. Francis wasn’t the composer of the prayer, just the purveyor of words that aligned the spirit of his teachings.
Karen originally conceived Divine Echoes as a full-on collaboration with Michel Pascal, who spent 20 years as a Buddhist monk in Nepal and maintained strong ties to the Catholic Church. His vocal contributions also play a powerful role on “Angel Anthem,” the solemn, gently caressing “Skybound Serenade” (inspired by birds, with floating melodies evoking the uplifting, mystical quality of birdsong) and the initially dark haunting and introspective yet ultimately soaring and uplifting “Whispers of Wind,” which is invokes a sense of nostalgia and gentle guiding presence of nature, both seen and unseen but fully experienced.
At one point, Karen took over the project and refashioned it as a solo endeavor. As she meditated on its direction, she realized she wanted the message to be more inclusive, rather than solely focused on a Catholic perspective – especially because she is not Catholic herself. “While I deeply love the St. Francis Prayer and have always regarded it as ecumenical and universal, I sought a broader vision.” This epiphany came from her son when she was hiking with him in Sedona. He pointed out that many people might perceive the project as Catholic-centric. As she rethought the concept, she had the revelation about nature being a reflection, an echo of the divine.
Karent’s decision to ground Divine Echoes in the sacred tradition of St. Francis while opening up both the music and spiritual aesthetic of the album allows listeners of all spiritual traditions (and even no traditions at all) to feel like this is a personal invitation to the otherworldly experience she creates.
Beyond the transformational sonic experience, one of the most salient features of Divine Echoes is the way each piece connects to nature. In addition to the songs previously mentioned this overriding theme includes “Sunbeam Smiles,” which embodies the transient beauty of sunbeams streaming from heaven; and the infectious, quirkily adventurous “Droplets of Dreams,” which weaves Karent’s string plucks, Labriola’s graceful piano and a later emotional viola solo to convey an ethereal swirl of falling rain and the presence of angels.
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