'LIFE AGAIN' – A Unique Music Video by Global Musicians

Our theology proclaims - "Sangitamapi Sahityam Saraswathyah Sthana Dwayam" - Devi Saraswathi nurtures us with the milk of music and literature 'from her bosom'.

"Music is a gift of God, not a gift of man - next to word of God, music deserves the highest praise. The gift of language combined with the gift of music was given to man ..." proclaimed Martin Luther King.

Thus, the power of music is revered and acknowledged universally.

Life Again - is a unique Music video in the times of COVI pandemic by international musicians in collaboration with ICCR.

As part of initiative to encourage artists to showcase their artistic work during the COVID-19 lockdown, ICCR has been collaborating with eminent artists to provide them ICCR's platform to launch their virtual art works. One such collaboration is with Dr. Mysore Manjunath, who is a renowned violinist and an empaneled artist of ICCR in outstanding category. Dr. Mysore Manjunath conceptualized and composed the video song -Life Again' and it was released last week

'Life Again' is an international collaboration of 20 eminent musicians from across the globe and India who have performed in this specially composed music video during this Covid pandemic. Interestingly, all of them are from Corona affected countries.

Let us know more about the video in the words of Dr. Mysore Manjunath himself.

"During this pandemic times as concerts and music festivals have been cancelled around the world & Musicians and the Music industry is coming to terms with the challenging times ahead, I thought of a novel idea of composing a special motivational unity Song in bringing communities together.

Top 20 Global Musicians - from various Corona affected countries from different parts of the world came together performing an astounding melody and proved that this is a time for social distancing and emotional bonding. I requested Pujya HH Sree Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji to write a shloka and he kindly obliged and also recited it himself for the video production.

This song portrays the emotions of all the agony, distress, & suffering and ends with the positive ray of hope and is Named 'Life Again". Prestigious ICCR (Indian Council For Cultural Relations, Government of India) has officially launched this Video two days ago as Director General of ICCR Mr. Dinesh Patnaik launched it in the virtual presence of all musicians around the globe. Later ICCR branches all over the world released it. After knowing the seriousness and the rich musical content of this audio- video recording, Ministry of External Affairs decided to launch this in All Indian Embassy offices in 180 countries. Indian Embassy in US, Austria, France, Germany, Japan and Afghanistan have already launched it last week. This song is composed in our traditional Indian Raga Charukesi and it is really nice seeing each musician play this in his own style. Renowned music composer Praveen Rao has done the great work of compilation in this song and has contributed to the richness of this song.

Internationally acclaimed musicians from various countries joined this collaboration with Pujya HH Sree Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji - Lyrics and Recital, Dr. Mysore Manjunath - Concept and Music Composing.

Ned McGowan, from Netherlands on Flute, Giulianno Moderally from Italy on Guitar, Mark wood from New York on Viper Electric Violin, Helen Wilson from London on Piano, Soheyl Tafaghodi from Iran on Kamanchen, Wang Ying from China on Erhu, Akram Abdulfatrah from Palestine on Violin, Tejendra Majumdar from Kolkata on Sarod, Luigi Corda from France on Double Bass, Ronu Majumdar, from Mumbai on Bhansuri, Julliane Southwel from Oregon and Laura Kaye from USA - Vocals, Mysore Nagaraj from Mysore on Violin, Varija Shri – Vocals, B C Manjunath from Bangalore on Mridanga, Ravishankar Upadhyay from New Delhi on Pakhawaz, Guruprasanna from Bangalore on Khanjira, Dr. Karthik from Chennai on Ghatam, Pramath Kiran did Creative Percussions

I specially would like to mention that Helen Wilson from UK (she is under the treatment for cancer but she very much wanted to do this recording) We also got a reputed musician Wang Ying from Wuhan city, China.

I thought of the idea of showing eclipse, that represents Corona and finally eclipse clearing off indicating a better tomorrow and Hope. The title of the song also appears on the screen as eclipse passes!

Each musician performing from a different city of the world, the nonstop coordination and unending phone discussions resulted in this fulfilling musical creation!

I am really happy that I am getting great response from some of the remote corners of the globe – so glad that so many are hearing and enjoying this Indian Raga concept and this kind of collaborative venture."

Here's a link to the

video: https://www.facebook.com/violinmysorebrothers/videos/3208995525817206/

'Life Again' is a wonderful musical ode to life, a musical supplication with many emotions coming together seeking the human life to revive and resurrect, an appeal to life to get succour and bounce back to happy normalcy by cutting asunder the venomous serpent like 'COVID 19'

This video is filled with a message of hope and universal love, that humans as a united entity can come out a bigger winner than we ever thought of - what is better than getting united through Music, which is known as a life-giving elixir!

All the eminent musicians in the video have played to people all over, they have played to all the Gods above. The transcendental quality it produced is full of healing property.

Pujya HH Sree Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji is a spiritual master, a divine healer, a musical messiah and his incantation, the powerful slokam at the very beginning of the video sets off the musical offering to a blessed start. May the video 'Life Again' bring back life again in all its beautiful colours and joys to the suffering humanity.

By Ambika Ananth