"Thank you. Thank you for your love. Thank you for sitting here every day and playing for us. Thank you for allowing the sound of God to take us back into our very true nature. I'm grateful. Namaste."

- H.H. Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi

Palm Springs, California - October 2006


Listen to Sai Maa

Bastian receiving prasad from Sai Maa

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At Mt. Shasta's Flying Lotus, Bastian, Marlis and Rasa sat in meditation for thirty minutes as people came in, found their places on pillows and floor chairs, and joined the group in silence. Softly in the background the PA system played a recording of Bastian on synthesizers and Marlis singing her composition, "God Within." At eight p.m. the recording faded and Marlis softly said "universum," the German word for universe. The three musicians brought their hands together, moving from the third eye to the heart chakra, in the Indian hand gesture representing "Namaste," sometimes translated as "I pay my respects to the divinity within you with all the divine charms of my mind and all the cordiality of my heart."
Rasa then ran a long nailed finger along the sitar's sympathetic strings and began a five minute solo, introducing Starseed's first piece of the evening, Lakshmi Smiles.
The printed program for the event requested everyone observe silence throughout the performance. Without the usual patter, shuffling and applause, the evening offered the audience an opportunity for an inward journey with the uncommon occasion of a group listening attentively. Starseed attempts a performance without the usual musician's ego delivering a scripted effort and asking for approval. As in the Indian classical tradition, Starseed's pieces explore through improvisation simple medlodic inventions guided by a modal structure, and influenced by a chosen ideation. Indian music will often choose a theme from an Indian legend as a guide for musicians and listeners. For that October 1st, 2005 performance, Starseed drew from our modern legends, and chose the idea of the conscious nourishment of the universe. "Universum - We pay our respects to the universe..."
- liner notes from Starseed's CD
Live in Mt. Shasta

"Nothing is unbalanced. Bastian coaxes from his synthesizers breathtaking shivers, and captures sublime moods of awe and reverence beautifully. Ma's tanboura, the most subtle of the instruments, is so uniquely her that it is uncanny. A breeze, a playful muse, and a pulse (though more like the waves of the wind, or the breath, or the tides, than any kind of drum) at once, it sends continuous waves of ecstasy through the music. Rasa has a way of making his sympathetic strings literally sing that is unlike that of any sitarist I'm familiar with. Part of this is his insistence on utterly meticulous tuning, and part of it is his willingness to give the instrument its chance to speak, rather than simply imposing his thoughts on it. It is astounding how long his sympathetics will continue to ring out for; how rich the overtones he finds simply by letting the instrument speak. In his hands, this preternaturally responsive instrument will bring you into spaces you had no idea existed."
- excerpts from Eaton T. Fores' review of Entering the Ambient Temple

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"Contemporary Raga" - Patrick Bernard

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"Innerspace Music" - Peter Ziegelmeier (Kode IV)

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