We are excited to announce the arrival of ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’, the first single from Adrian Freedman’s upcoming 15th studio album, ‘One Thousand Petals’, which arrives in February 2025.
A masterful player of the Zen Japanese Shukachi flute and a lifetime devotee to the path of heart-led creation, Adrian draws inspiration and knowledge from times spent amongst rich global cultures to produce transcendental music with a profound meaning and message.
The song is a collaboration with pioneering Brazilian medicine musician Chandra Lacombe, another artist dedicated to the healing power of sound and the impact of music upon life. This meeting of like-minded souls amplifies the mantra, ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ and embeds with it the purest intention to elevate and uplift the listener.
“The moment when I received the melody for this mantra stands out for me as the moment when the oriental traditions I had been immersed in for many years began to merge with the medicine songs I had channelled during years I spent living in Brazil. ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ is the quintessential Buddhist mantra. Some monks spend their entire lives chanting it. In essence a simple homage to the miraculous beauty of the lotus flower, it can be loosely translated as ‘Praise to the Jewel in Heart of the Lotus”. Considered as the nectar of all the spiritual teachings of the Buddha, chanting or singing this mantra is seen as a way of entering fully into the compassionate space of the heart.
The lotus flower begins its journey as a seed in the cold mud at the dark bottom of the pond and sends out shoots that rise through the water towards the surface, slowly emerging towards the light, opening out of the water in unblemished perfection. As such it is a symbol for our own journey from darkness to light.
In the words of the Vietnamese monk and Nobel Peace laureate Thich Nhat Hanh:
The lotus flower is a poignant reminder that we can flourish in spite of, or maybe even because of, darkness and struggle. Just like the lotus we too have the ability to rise from the mud, to bloom out of the darkness and radiate into the world.” Adrian Freedman.
‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ also features outstanding musicians Carlos Gomes, Antonio Arvind, Txai Fernando, Sanju Sahai, Elahn Keshava, Lua Maria, Charlotte Mabon, Misha Mullov-Abbado.
One Thousand Petals features songs taken from Adrian’s medicine songbook, Lotus Rising, which are messages of hope, transformation and connection with ancestral spirits. It features collaborations with Deva Premal, Ayla Schafer, Geshe Lama Ahbay Rinpoche, Chandra Lacombe, Helene Bøksle, Sanju Sahai, and over 30 other singers and musicians from around the world. Recorded in multiple locations over the past 5 years, it represents a culmination of Adrian’s love of cross-cultural musical collaborations, as well as the beginning of a new project to record his medicine mantra songs.
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