SHAMBHU, Lotus Dream

In March 2025, Shambhu found a beautiful, innovative way to both reflect upon and cap an impactful and inspiring 15 years of recording ambient/new age albums that earned him numerous accolades from genre tastemakers Zone Music Reporter and New Age Radio Music Awards while setting new standards in the realm of warm and soulful, relaxing, intricately and spaciously produced acoustic and electric guitar music. He gathered a total of personal favorite pieces and “airplay hits” on SiriusXM’s Spa Channel, remixed them in Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio with his longtime mixer friend Todd Boston and released the unique, perfectly titled retrospective collection Transcendence.

The Shambhu/Boston dual magic and the guitarist’s spirit of surprise and sonic innovation continues on his latest album Lotus Dream, his third studio album (after Acoustic Oasis and Reflections) to be mixed in Dolby Atmos. For Shambhu, the opportunity to use this technology to bring his exquisite compositions and compelling performances to such new and exciting dimensions adds a deeply immersive spatial quality to the listening experience in which the layers of guitar, piano and ambient textures truly envelop the attuned ears. Beyond another simply mind, spirit and body soothing experience, Lotus Dream hits that sweet spot between being a very personal journey for the artist and an essential universal experience we can all connect with.

As per the artist’s conceptual intention, the nine-track collection is a sanctuary in sound. It invites the listeners to slow down, breathe deeply and dream freely. In normal times, this might be a luxury, something to accompany meditation, a spa treatment or slowing down after a personally chaotic day. But in today’s post-pandemic world, where anxiety, uncertainty and insecurities of all kinds reign, we’re bombarded with information overload and socio-political divisions and tensions seem at an all-time high, Lotus Dream is nothing short of a musical miracle, an essential oasis where we can tune out the noise, nourish every aspect of our lives and turn weariness and exhaustion into recharged meaning, purpose and hope.  

Likewise, when Shambhu calls the music on the album “all about optimism and envisioning a brighter future,” it’s not just feel good, new agey terminology – it’s defiance through art, a graceful way of countering the prevailing Zeitgeist with a gentle, loving offering for a better way for humanity, offering strength through peace as a counter to the usual foreign policy philosophy “Peace through Strength.”

In the imaginations of Shambhu and artists of like mind – and by extension those of us blessed enough to listen and take them to heart – music is a means of breaking through our darker human impulses and embracing kindness, respect and love. Speaking of the album title, the guitarist says, “The lotus symbolizes rising from darkness into beauty and light. The dream is aspirational. It reflects my belief in possibility and the human spirit’s capacity to transcend. Together, Lotus Dream expresses both an inner journey and a vision for a more peaceful world.”

Like the other collections in Shambhu’s expanding discography, longtime fans and newcomers to his heartfelt and intricately played aesthetic may keep the experience simple by closing their eyes and allow the weighted cares of the world to lift as they immerse in the blissful 34-minute journey straight through from the lilting, lyrical opener (and first lead single) “Shall We” – a grand showcase for Shambhu’s melodic elegance and intricate playing style – through the sparse, haunting meditation “Visions,” an ambient exploration weaving a lonesome, resonating electric guitar with the softer caress of his acoustic to create a hybrid sound I would call “ambient roots music.” It’s significant that Shambhu opens the album with “Shall We” because the composition was sparked from a quiet moment where he asked himself: “Can we come back to peace?”   

The other gems in the repertoire, starting with the other lead singles “Awakened Dreams,” “ANANYA” and “Resilience” seem like an authentic collective attempt to answer that powerful question.  “Awakened Dreams” is pure, subtle and warm-toned acoustic brilliance that showcases his effortless fingerstyle performance while offering a safe space to release past burdens and disappointments and dream and aspire anew. The hope of a better world starts in each person’s heart, after all.

Just as we’re settling into a meditational mode, Shambhu shares a unique reflection of the reality that lurks just outside via “ANANYA.” Opening with the haunting, ominous chords of his rarely heard piano before introducing trippy, hypnotic resonating guitar elements, the track blends celestial etherealness with intense stress, reflecting the anxiety Shambhu felt watching division and fear take root in our world. As the guitar lines repeat and the ambience soars, he introduces a few shards of light to pierce those dark places. The other track on Lotus Dream that taps into those mixed feelings about humanity and our planet is “Blue Mantra,” a thoughtful, acoustic driven contemplation that glides along like a culmination of the journey from serenity to sadness, tension to transcendence that Shambhu expresses throughout the album. It emerged from another quiet moment question: “Can we come back to peace?”

Many listeners will be inclined to interpret the title of the moody, starkly atmospheric “Resilience” as a call to find the inner strength to bounce back from oppression and defeat and resolve to see those once crushed hopes return to life. Yet it’s also significant on a purely sonic level as his second collaboration with Leo Steinriede (following their popular SiriuxXM Spa68 track “Openings”) and a deeper dive into a more ambient direction that he started with his fellow guitarist. Another track featuring forward thinking ambient electric exploration is “Prana Tides,” a powerful ballad that finds an artful balance between laid back acoustic strumming and crackling, edgy electric guitarisma that pushes this close to rock instrumental territory.  

In addition to the prominent piano on “ANANYA,” another important element that sets this album apart from previous Shambhu releases is the inclusion of two lush pieces showcasing his dynamic, ultra-melodic piano talents, the luxuriant, vocally caressed dreamscape “Majestic Mountain” and the aspirational, elegant and film-score like “Lotus Dream” – both of which feature prominent harmonic guitar weavings. Shambhu calls these his “unfinished piano sketches.”   

“I had written them around 2016-2017,” he says. “I quietly tucked them away as I worked on other music. When I began shaping Lotus Dream, I revisited them and felt that this was finally the right home for these pieces, as if they were waiting for this moment. I grew up with a piano in the house and often sat down to play improvisational new age music. That connection has always been in me. These compositions captured that spontaneous, intimate feeling. They carry emotional depth and honesty—qualities I wanted to bring into Lotus Dream.

“The experience of playing the piano is quite different from guitar,” Shambhu adds. “The piano offers a broader harmonic range and a different kind of emotional canvas. I studied piano for 18 months at the Manhattan School of Music in New York.  Though I don’t practice piano, I’m still a piano enthusiast and I love creating on it. Piano allows me to explore dynamics, space, and tone in new ways. This is also the first album where my own piano playing takes a central role, and I found great joy in performing those songs.”

Inspired by Sri Chinmoy’s wisdom to focus on melody, despite the array of fascinating textures on each track, Shambhu embraced minimalism on Lotus Dream. “The arrangements give space for the melody to lead, allowing each emotion to resonate fully,” he says. “At its core, this album is an invitation to reflect and reconnect with something deeper. I loved the freedom of creating without expectation—just letting the music emerge. My hope is that listeners find a moment of calm, reflection, and emotional connection through these songs. In a world filled with tension, noise and uncertainty, Lotus Dream is my offering of peace—a place to breathe, feel, and dream.”