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Chant and Kirtan

Music forms an important component of the Shanti Peace mission. Music transports us into another state of feeling, and devotional music lifts our vibration and sooths the soul. We play and produce music from all different spiritual traditions, including Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Celtic, native American, Hare Krishna, Jewish and so on.

One style popular at The Harmony Centre is an ancient form of devotional chanting called Kirtan. One of the oldest sacred music traditions of the world, the Kirtan call-and-response chanting genre comes to us from India. Using ancient mantras, the Kirtan calls upon sacred energies which serve to quiet the mind, remove obstacles, and bring us back to the centre of our being.

Our resident chant master Ashley Turner is a world class musician, having spent over 20 years touring the world and Australia as a double base and base guitar player in the finest venues and bands. He now composes, plays and produces devotional music with his wife Kate and others at The Harmony Centre.

Ashley is ably assisted by Chad Humphries, a composer and musician of wonderful chant music.  They form the basis of our satsang musical experience along with many others who are part of our drumming circles, choir and community.

Shanti Sounds

Another musical staple of The Harmony Centre are Shanti Sounds – Divinely-inspired musicians who perform sacred music, including Kirtan, from a diverse variety of traditions and religions.

The band comprises of a guitarist, bass player, drummer and two vocalists.

Shanti Sounds are devoted spiritual aspirants and have unwavering faith in the power of sound to help bring healing, peace and love to the World.

Combining powerful ancient chants with modern music, they offer a unique and transformational musical experience for the listener.

Before each performance, they explain the significance of chanting mantras to break up unhealthy negative energy and help create new, positive energy patterns. Mantras are sacred words or Divine sounds invested with the power to protect, purify, and transform the individual who repeats them.

The audience can expect a fusion of energetic live music and guided meditation, with the opportunity to participate and experience the Divine energy that can be accessed through sacred sounds.

Sanskrit

Just like many of the Latin languages have borrowed words from English, particularly in specialised areas such as computing, so it is that English will benefit from borrowing words from Sanskrit, to describe spiritual ideas and concepts.

Like Hebrew, Sanskrit is a spiritually alive language. There are more words for spiritual concepts in Sanskrit than in all of the other languages. They have words to describe all kinds of subtle spiritual experiences and issues. The actual language itself carries a vibration which is very high, and which helps us to raise our vibration when we chant with it. Thus, a number of the chants we use at satsang and kirtan are in Sanskrit. We have produced The Harmony Centre Chant book, which gives translations as to the closest approximate meaning of the chant in English, given the constraints of the English language in this area.