Rasa

Vocalist Kim Waters and German-born multi-instrumentalist/producer Hans Christian comprise Rasa, a San Francisco-based duo dedicated to Indian devotional music. Waters has a parallel career as an illustrator, thanks to her mastery of classical Indian art styles, while Christian worked as a session musician in Los Angeles during the '80s and subsequently collaborated with artists like Robert Rich, Vas, Krishna Das, and Jai Uttal. Together, Rasa plays up the soothing, hypnotic aspects of Indian spiritual music, adding modern production while maintaining respect for tradition. Their debut album, Devotion, was released by Hearts of Space in 2000, but it was the following year's Union that put them on the map. An exotic and sensual release, it was more in tune with what they wanted to acheive and led to a few live performances (one which was released as a live CD the next year.) ~ Steve Huey