LIV & LET LIV MUSIC SCENE.
Click here
for Liv & Let Liv CD's.
Liv & Let Liv is a collaboration between
two guitarists -- Liv Khalsa (a solo recording artist and producer
of Kim Robertson and the Crimson series) and Livtar Khalsa (also
a solo artist who has recorded and toured with the Khalsa String
Band).
Liv and Livtar, although not related, are
part of a spiritual brotherhood that practices kundalini yoga,
chanting and meditation. They both became Sikhs and, as most
do who follow that way of life, they changed their names and
took the last name Khalsa. However, there is only a very small
group of Sikhs with the name Liv (which means love). Their bond
strengthened when they discovered they both play guitar, have
similar influences in Sixties rock music, and like to hike in
the desert.Liv Khalsa was raised in Osseo, Minnesota,
and his first music teacher was his grandfather who conducted
marching bands that played for troops during battles in World
War I. Liv started on trumpet at 13 and moved to Phoenix. He
got a tape recorder and when he was 15 he recorded a new age
album for friends and family featuring a home-built synthesizer,
backwards tape loops and nature sounds. Although he played trumpet
in his high school marching band, after hearing The Byrds in
the mid-Sixties, Liv also began playing guitar in a rock band.
As a sophomore, he started a studio production company to record
local bands, tape interviews and put together a one-hour weekly
radio show for KDKB, a freeform underground station.After playing in a King Crimson-styled
progressive rock band, Liv attended a graphic arts school for
two years to study graphics and printing. He also began meditating
in 1972, the same year that he started his own record company
after producing an album of folk songs by Bi Bi Bhani. Over the next two decades, the company evolved
into the Invincible label, one of the oldest and most successful
new age recording companies which has branched out into other
types of music. Liv has been involved as either producer, arranger,
recording engineer, songwriter or musician on 130 albums that
have sold a total of more than a million units. These albums
include the worldbeat Music of the Spheres (two volumes) and
the meditational Crimson series (seven volumes) featuring Celtic
harpist Kim Robertson and new age vocalist Singh Kaur (with Singh
and the jazz ensemble Mosaic on Vol. 7). Liv also has been involved
with recordings by sitarist Rahul Sariputra, Robertson and Kaur
as solo artists, and acoustic guitarist Mila Gilbert.Livtar Khalsa's life journey began in Macon,
Georgia, but he grew up in Orlando, Florida, where he began accordian
lessons at age seven, studied piano from nine until he was eleven,
started playing banjo at 12 in Kingston Trio type folk groups
with his brothers, and then switched to guitar when he was 14.
In high school Livtar was playing guitar in rock bands, but also
played trumpet in the school orchestra. His early musical influences
ranged from The Beach Boys and The Ventures to The Doors and
The Who.In late 1969, Livtar began studying yoga
and meditation in California before being sent to Atlanta to
start an ashram where he has been the director ever since. Music
has always been a major part of his meditations, and he plays
regularly, not only at the morning and night meditations in Atlanta,
but at the two big annual national gatherings during the summer
and winter solstices. In 1972 he formed the Khalsa String Band
with musicians from ashrams all over the country, recorded four
albums with them, and went on a national tour in 1974. Livtar
released two solo albums -- The Khalsa Way (1980) and Our Time
(1984). During the past eight years the summer solstice gathering
in New Mexico has featured a concert with national acts on Peace
Prayer Day when Livtar has performed on-stage with Ray Manzarek,
Donovan and Arlo Guthrie. Livtar also played guitar on an album
by Singh Kaur and several other projects being produced by Liv
Khalsa."What I learned by meditating is how
rhythm and repetition affects the consciousness," explains
Liv. "I am continuously studying the relationship between
mantra and music. One of my main goals is to take music beyond
entertainment and make it an experience on the soul level as
well."
According to Livtar, "We're trying
to steer both us and the listener toward consciousness, fun and
ecstasy at the same time. Our lives are not geared towards the
earth, but towards our higher consciousness. Of course there's
no reason consciousness can't sneak up on you while you're listening
to music and feeling good.
"It's interesting to note," says
Liv, "that most baroque music was notated by the composers
so that it would be interpreted by the orchestra playing it.
It's designed for musicians to do with it whatever they want.
So we did.
Liv Singh Khalsa is known for his esoteric recording
and producing styles with Native American, New Age, Blues, Hip Hop and World Beat artists.
Invincible recordings Billboard charting music has sold over
a million records. Liv Singh Khalsa has recorded, produced or mixed such artist as Jordan Rudess (with
the Dixee Dreggs), Kim Robertson, Singh Kaur, Paul Machlis, Alasdair
Fraser, Kevin Stoller (with Stevie Nicks), Peace Family, Ken Mari (with Alice Cooper) Bizzy Bone, Chris Ray, DMX, Michael Dunlap with the Commodores, Zakir Hussan of the Maha Vishnu Orchestra, Jim Scott with Paul Winter Consort, Antion Vikram with Eric Burdon & the Animals, Ron Feurer with Diana Ross and the Fifth Dimension, Steve Kujala with Chick Corea, Lester Chambers with the Chambers Brothers, Liv & Let Liv, Tony Redhouse, Tony Duncan, Amy Ford, Peace Family, Chico Chism, Kevin Stoller, Tezz Milan, Tod Shuba, Mike King, PBR, Rick Cyge, Ken Scaggs, Jim Simmons, Snatam, and Ric Flauding.
