The Satellite Sky is an elegant and philosophical work that seamlessly blends elements of Americana with influences from World folk traditions and Jazz, producing a new genre that might be called Country and Eastern. With tightly woven, lyric driven songs similar to something Bruce Cockburn or Joni Mitchell might write, Dave Stringer, a well-known Mantra and Kirtan artist, explores his themes of spiritual inquiry and quandary with a well-travelled eye. The result is an album as much for the world music community as western Yoga practitioners.
Country and and bluegrass instruments like mandolin, pedal steel and acoustic guitar are embellished with all manner of East Indian instruments such as harmonium, tamboura, santoor and swaramandala. Songs like the tabla-driven “Checking the Arithmetic” are flavored with pop melodies and sound like Stephen Fearing vacationed in Rishikesh, took up transcendental meditation and brought back a band of Indian musicians. The soaring harmonies of the Appalachian anthem “The Carbon Cycle” simultaneously invoke both wonder and pain. Compelling in its understatement, the title track “The Satellite Sky” is a lush balled of love and longing delivered with disarming intensity.
The Satellite Sky includes two previously unreleased recordings along with the four songs in English that were part of the 2002 Valley Entertainment release of Brink.
Read Dave’s comments in Seattle Yoga News about how he wrote the Satellite Sky and Brink: