Aradhna

Aradhna is a Hindi-Western Christian worship group from Cincinnati, United States, active from 2000. The band name is a Hindi term meaning “adoration”. Its music is built around devotional themes, spiritual transformation and cultural exchange, and it uses a range of languages.

Formation and members

The group forms around Chris Hale, an American musician who spends his childhood and adolescence in South Asia, where he becomes fluent in Nepali and Hindi. During those years he studies the sitar and develops an interest in bhajans, the devotional genre associated with Hindu worship. In 1991 he forms the rock fusion band Olio and tours across India for six years. Olio releases its first Hindi album, Naam Leo Re, in 1997.

After Olio’s final tour in 1999, Hale meets again with American guitarist and vocalist Pete Hicks in London. Hicks has earlier returned to India, the country of his birth, to join Olio in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Hale and Hicks begin a new collaboration, and when they have enough material for an album they record in the United States with bassist Travis McAfee. McAfee spends part of his childhood travelling in Africa, India and Southeast Asia.

Early releases and development

Aradhna records Deep Jale in spring 2000 and releases it in the United Kingdom during a three-month tour. The response to the album and performances encourages the group to continue arranging traditional bhajans and to start composing original songs for Marga Darshan (2002). The band later performs extensively in India and North America, and its touring reaches South Asian diaspora communities in South Africa, Guyana and Suriname.

Independent work and collaborations

From the beginning, Aradhna remains independent of the record industry in order to retain creative control. It later self-releases three more records and works with musicians including Rick Hordinski, Naren Budhakar and Jim Feist. The group’s discography grows to include its sixth album, Namaste Saté, together with the companion DVD Sau Guna, a set of music videos filmed in Varanasi, India.

Style

Aradhna’s music combines traditions from North India and North America. It is associated with sitar, rock fusion, bhajans and cross-cultural devotional music, with an emphasis on preserving ethnic identity while building dialogue between cultures.