Raveena – Asha’s Awakening

Insistent riffs, steady rhythms pouring in as if from a distance, transcendent lyrics dipping in and out of different worlds, vocals floating over the tracks – Raveena’s sophomore project offers an irresistible invitation to the listener to join her journey, to reflect and – above all – to enjoy themselves. With beats transporting back to the early 2000s, when Darkchild had established himself as king, and guitar melodies offering direct and loving homage to Asha Puthli’s 1976 classic The Devil Is Loose, Asha’s Awakening manages to be at once introspective and expansive, drawing its inspiration across decades but maintaining a clarity of purpose carefully arranged and communicated as if already familiar.

From the playful Kismet to the ironic Kathy Left 4 Kathmandu (“I can open up your third eye / As long as you can pay the price”) and especially on album opener and lead single Rush, Raveena’s voice is ethereal, otherworldly and completely assured. She maintains this same confidence and patience dealing with more serious, personal themes on Time Flies, and this tone – encapsulating respect for both for one’s self (or should that be selves?) and others – carries through to the 13-minute guided meditation that eases the listener out of the album’s dreamworld as it closes. 

It is not a reductive or simplifying statement to assert that this record is about love, as Raveena shows us that this love permeates everything we can see and the potentialities beyond what we can sense – in itself, a remarkable thing for a record to do. She achieves this perhaps most gorgeously on Asha’s Kiss (featuring Asha Puthli herself). Magical, hypnotic, wonderfully intimate yet charmingly restrained – lyrics like “When we kissed, I spiralled into space” make literal sense in the universe of Asha’s Awakening, a universe that lingers with the listener. Raveena has delivered a sophisticated, complex, impressive work of art, and it’s so consistently delightful as to seem almost effortless.

Sylvia Unerman

Asha’s Awakening is released on 18^th February 2022. For further information or to order the album visit Raveena’s website here.

Watch the video for the single Secret here: