Essence of Being

Dev Gopalasamy

All compositions and arrangements by Dev Gopalasamy

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Album is available on iTunes and on Spotify.  Hardcopy CDs available from CDBaby.com or from the artist.

Musicians on this CD

Dev Gopalasamy – Electric and Acoustic Guitars

Justin Dileo – Bass

Andy Evans – Drums

Michael Bellemore – Acoustic Piano, Synths

Jess Ciampa – Percussion

Special Guests

Fusion of Roots and Shahn:

Davood Tabrizi – Kamanche

Ram Chandra Suman – Tablas

Horseradish and Garlic:

John Bostock – Acoustic Piano

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The Essence of Being – Album Notes

This CD explores a variety of styles, the wide tonal spectrum of the guitar, and the emotive capabilities of Contemporary Art Music.  I love the music of Gustav Mahler as much as I love Wes Montgomery, Hariprasad Chaurasia or Yngwie Malmsteen.  Hence an album for other like-minded souls. 

The purpose of each piece was to capture a particular emotion and mood ...  and to create a vehicle for guitar improvisations that focused on melody and feel, rather than intellectual note choices, clichéd lines or the display of technique for the sake of it. 

All but two of these compositions were written in the last year.  I set a time limit of 2 hours for the completion of each melody, so that the ideas flowed and were an emotional response rather than an intellectual under-taking.  Many of the melodies were initially improvised and then written down with modifications.  Some melodies were sung into my mobile whilst driving and emailed back to me to be transcribed.  Arranging the pieces of course took longer.  Most pieces were recorded with little rehearsal, and often on the day the musicians were given the charts.  It is a credit to the musicians that the pieces feel so comfortable and sound so rehearsed.

Eternal gratitude to Andy Evans and Justin Dileo for their great friendship, amazing musicianship and for being a part of the Trio we have had for the last few years.  This Trio has been a musical highlight for me in recent years.  We perform a very large repertoire of music and cover diverse genres from Bebop to Rock.  What a buzz it has been.  It was a real pleasure to also have my dear friends Michael Bellemore, John Bostock and Jess Ciampa perform on this CD. 

Thanks also to Davood Tabrizi and Ram Chandra Suman for their performances on Shahn and Fusion of Roots.   Davood plays the haunting Kamanche, an ancient Persian violin. Ram Chandra Suman is on tablas.  Tazzad was a trio that Davood and I formed many years back to perform music based on Eastern musical tradition.  It was a highly successful ensemble, and a beautiful phase in my musical journey, exploring my ethnic roots ...and learning to improvise in yet another style... and performing entirely on the acoustic guitar during that period.

Hope you enjoy this album as much as we enjoyed making it.

Dev Gopalasamy