GREAT SCOTT P.R.oductions

PYRAMID IN YOUR BACKYARD

Praful wants to know what’s in your backyard?

If you took a moment and really looked at what’s lying in your yard, or garden, what would you see? According to musical visionary and freethinker Praful, “backyards are casual places often cluttered with people’s belongings, while the pyramid stands for something deeper and spiritual. It is a symbol for a place inside us all, but we don’t always connect to it. That’s just like my music. It’s casual and you can just hang out and have fun, but there is a deeper meaning to the music if you tune into it.”

Praful’s unique tracks mix electronic dance grooves, experimental jazz stylings and warm global rhythms culled from his extensive travels. The provocative title is taken from Paulo Coehlo’s timeless fable “The Alchemist,” the tale of a wandering shepherd who makes a crazy journey fueled by dreams, the pursuit of love and pure hope. The idea that anyone can live a magical life of his own making is something Praful understands through firsthand experience.

The classically trained saxophonist, composer and songwriter was born in the former German capital city of Bonn. Though he enjoyed his hometown’s picturesque setting and cosmopolitan flair during his youth, he longed to find his place in the larger world. After doing mentally demanding social service work at a school for handicapped children, Praful began exploring, traveling the planet in search of “home.” Eventually Praful figured out that home is not a geographic location. “It took me a long time to understand that I will not feel at home anywhere,” Praful reflects on his years of wandering. “Home is a feeling, a way of finding some rest in myself, it’s about being at peace.”

After studying at a renowned Dutch conservatory for five years, Praful found happiness and calmness by making music around the clock. He quickly began to devote all of his time, passion and effort learning other instruments and creating tunes using techniques from all over the map. He realized then his goal was to entertain minds, bodies and souls and he took the mission very seriously.

Praful was deeply inspired by the different people and cultures he encountered during extensive backpacking during his rootless years. His philosophies, ways of thinking and complex rhythmic compositions show the influence of Brazil, Greece, Turkey and Israel, but his awakening came mostly in the Far East. “India is the strongest representative of the East, with a totally different way of approaching life,” Praful explains. “Going there was quite an eye-opener. In India, there is a certain relaxation that comes through in the religion—a certain surrender in the Eastern mind that we don’t have if we are born somewhere else. There is a deep spiritual dimension of life that is the undercurrent of everything.” Praful left India with knowledge of native folklore, religious theories from different sects and rich melodic inspiration for his own creations.

Pyramid in Your Backyard is Praful’s latest album released this summer by forward-thinking jazz label Rendezvous Entertainment. The record is a joyful musical reminder that anything is possible in this world, provided people stay positive, connect with others and keep their colorful imaginations intact.

Pyramid in Your Backyard is a dynamic travelogue full of blissful beats and cultural traditions that are accessible to people no matter where they live or where they have been. Praful’s modern jazz captures elements of musical traditions from many countries, but presents them with room for an individual’s interpretation. Most songs are instrumental, but a few feature mesmerizing vocals sung in Portuguese, Hindi and English. “There is a certain way of singing that comes with each language,” Praful says. “There is something special that comes with the sound of a Portuguese or Indian song that would get lost in a translation. I think there is a certain flair and depth to the embellishments and the way they move… these languages move in a gentle way, like the way snakes move up out of their basket as Indian music is played.”

Praful worked closely with Dutch producers Adani & Wolf to make this lush and rhythmic album. For the “Pyramid” sessions, the team imported percussion instruments from faraway lands and gathered a prime crew of musicians who could freely associate bossa nova, Indian chants, free jazz, samba, funk and chilled out electronic beats all in one song. Adani & Wolf’s incredible studio facility, “Studio de Boot,” is located on a ship floating peacefully in an Amsterdam canal, the city Praful currently calls home. This proved to be an ideal setting for Praful’s recording since it isolated the music-makers, letting them channel their influences from a place deep in their minds as the boat gently swayed in the calm currents.

Praful released One Day Deep, his solo debut, to great critical acclaim in 2003. In an amazing twist of crossover recognition, the downtempo album charted in the top 10 of three different sections in Billboard Magazine: Electronic Albums, Hot Club Play AND Contemporary Jazz.

The first single “Sigh,” sky rocketed to the #1 spot on Radio & Records’ Smooth Jazz airplay chart and to this day is still one of the most played anthems of the format. The success of Praful lead to something of a small revolution at the usually “safe” format, leading several top stations to examine their playlists and incorporate more “chill” in the mix. The welcoming of a new sound at the format was further evidenced by the creation of a new specialty radio show, hosted by superstar Chris Botti, called “Chill with Chris Botti.”

Even more important than the impressive chart positions, however, is the phenomenal emotional response that “Sigh” and Praful generated. Cars stopped. Phones rang. Drivers pulled off the road to call stations. People flocked to his live shows, wanting, waiting to hear the trance-like refrains of a great song performed by a brilliant new artist.

Pyramid in Your Backyard, with its wild array of complex textures, beats, exotic motifs, is sure to recreate the same frenzy caused by the release of One Day Deep.

Praful’s musical inspirations are varied -- Nitin Sahwney, Moby, Salif Keita, Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento, Stevie Wonder and Seal all make his list of favorites. From this pool of genius, Praful presents a unique musical vision and a cross-cultural piece of moving art in the process. Though many of the above mentioned artists are more traditional songwriters or singers, Praful delivers something ethereal and moving with his instrumental soundscapes, offering a choice to the listeners. “If you want, you can get something out of the lyrics if you know the language or you can just drift on the music.”

The tireless and endlessly creative Praful finds that the rewards of making music continually motivate him to tour incessantly, compose at all hours and actively seek out other artists for new groundbreaking projects. “I feel a certain totality when I do it…when you do something you enjoy so much there is no split between making the music and being a musician. I feel a meditative state, a space of no-mind.” The feeling of getting lost in music in this fashion is not something many people experience in their lifetime yet Praful views it simply, as usual, seeing the pyramid in the backyard of his life. “If people say that listening to my music makes them want to dance or if it touches their heart, blows their mind or gets them out of their mind for a little while, then I will be happy.”

For more information, please contact Rick Scott @ Great Scott P.R.oductions, 310.398.0260.

2211 Corinth Ave #207

Los Angeles, CA 90064