Podcast #15- The Power of Music to Bring us Together
August 10, 2021
Listen to Henry’s conversation with musicians Moksha Sommer and Jemal Wade Hines of the band HuDost, whose transformative music stirs the heart and lifts us into new states. Their journey is an inspiration to all of us to pursue our passion. It is often said that music is the spirituality of the future. The future is here.
HuDost has a folk quality yet is quite postmodern; the band offers new takes on ancient words and melodies, cross-cultural hybrid transcendental chill-out music with an edge.… This is not fluffy new-age music—it’s serious, complex fare with no aversion to addressing agony. Sommer’s vocal execution is precisely orchestrated, her voice-opening, hollow-toned vortexes piercing through the tough spots… a journey of music and spirit.
— Chronogram Magazine
HuDost’s core musicians are Moksha Sommer from Montréal, and Jemal Wade Hines from Kentucky. Having toured the U.S., Canada, and Europe constantly since April 2006, HuDost has grown and expanded. In this time, they have grown as artists, as seekers, as a couple, and as a family. HuDost’s music is a powerful expression of life’s journey and discovery. In 2008, Moksha went through a painful process of brain surgery due to a tumor. The healing from this included re-learning language skills, losing and regaining proper sight, and experiencing seizures. This could have been staggering but instead served as learning that has fueled a potent desire to bring healing through sound. It is through music that the losses and gains, pains and triumphs, and excruciating beauty of life can be given a voice of empathy to the synonymous lives of all people. Both critics and fans have said time and again that the music of HuDost is this very expression. HuDost’s message comes from real experience, real emotion, and real concern for the world— from the birth of a child, to the healing of the body, to the healing of the planet, their words and music echo the human experience.
HuDost functions as a duo or as a band, including guest musicians of varying sensibilities and backgrounds, and often including dance in their shows. As a duo, their instrumentation includes vocals, harmonium (Indian Pump-Organ), NORD Keys, guitars, Dulcinet, percussion, and a slew of sonic ambient effects. Their music is a rich, eclectic blending of pop and rock with traditional Sufi music, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian and Balkan folk music, Farsi, Turkish, Arabic, and folk. Their sound crosses all borders and barriers, taking the listener on a journey they will never forget.
Since 2015, HuDost have also been highly engaged activists, doing advocacy work as KY Congressional District Representatives for ONE, a non-profit organization working to end extreme poverty and, specifically, the sexism of poverty.
Visit HuDost online!
Website: www.hudost.com (support the pre-sale campaign for their new album!)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HuDost/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/_hudost
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hudost/
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