Our parents, like it or not, will always have a huge influence on our musical taste.  Whether it is having to listen to Pink Floyd albums as a child that you learned to love, or rebelling against your parents music to discover punk rock.  The journey of musical discovery starts there.  When I was introduced to Annamaria Pinna of the band Vajra and discovered she was the child of a school teacher and former monk I was intrigued to see where her musical upbringing would lie.

First thing that called my attention as I went to the Vajra Temple website was the snake eating its tail, Ouroboros, on the cover of the album. I knew right then and there she was more than just doing music, for her there was a whole thought process behind all of it. Ouroboros stands for a cycle of life that has a birth and death for everything, of course I would suggest looking deeper into it for this is only a generic concept. I also read some information on Annamaria that helped to understand her concept behind these tracks and what she wanted to portray. For me such a powerful image could not be ignored and throughout the tracks I kept my ears open to this.

The band recently released the album Pleroma which seems like the perfect entry to Vajra’s world.  As I hear the first song ‘Inside The Flame”, I am captivated by her tranquil voice and it just builds from there with some sort of anger as it guides you through the track. What I love most is the influences from India, where Annamaria spent some time, and her combination of rock music all blended but yet letting each speak for itself throughout the song. Another track that caught my attention was ‘Akkord Plemory’ which I also researched and was intrigued to know that she is referring to what people call “mystic chord.” This is a combination of chords that some believe to be able to make a person go beyond what its mind would allow it to.  I found this track to be very soothing and the one that followed, ‘The Apple’ really displays her voice from the beautiful soft part to the louder more aggressive ones. The music Vajra does is beyond what you hear. I did have to do some research beyond the tracks and I loved to find that there is a concept behind the tracks I’ve heard and more to learn. The music was great but her history is just as intriguing which shapes the songs on this album.

Be prepared when you enter the world of Vajra because it may change you forever.

www.thevajratemple.com

-review by Ana Cordova of indie Band Guru

Indie Band Guru