Inspiration for my new album originally came while driving on the road towards the House of the Sun, Haleakala, in Maui - I had to pull over. Now that inspiration has become a raga named Jasmine Perfume from ancient Chinese poetry.

Jasmine Perfume offers a choir of voices intoning vulnerable passacaglia chords charged by an undulating drum ostinato, this numinous joining being the conductive vessel for a soaring and searing Hammond organ touching down and taking off in turn.

Dwelling in the arcadian aspects of Bilaval Thaat, with Just Intonation imparting purity to the sound, episodic passages visit labyrinthine and unadorned musical language contrasts, gradually building towards climatic moments approaching the culmination of my composition and performance. I enjoyed using polyrhythms and tabla patterns for the melodic invention.

Advantaging a dramatic drum pause, the overall rhythmic cycle for Jasmine Perfume is no less than 200 matras but whose counting.

Being newly fascinated with the seven chakras, I wondered which chakra Jasmine Perfume focuses on. Perhaps it would be Ajna, signifying the subconscious mind, the direct link to Brahman. Coincidentally, the cover art for my album was selected prior to thinking this, finding out purple is the color associated with Ajna.

Jai Ho was the favorite expression of my teacher, Pandit Jasraj. Just this week I learned the meaning roughly translated is victory prevail. My software and hardware were named Meruvina after my initials, MER and Mount Meru, the mythological abode of the Hindu gods, vina meaning musical instrument. Years later I discovered there is a German name Meruvina meaning famous victory. 

There was an eminent gemologist who passionately insisted my ancestry was German even though my grandparents are from Russia, Hungary and Poland, all Jewish. Perhaps what he felt relates to how the borders of Germany and Hungary have been blurred at times going back. 

- Michael Robinson, December 2022, Los Angeles