Ananda Xenia Shakti’s “The Perfumed Garden,” released with Love Power the Band, unfolds less like a conventional single than like a carefully tended environment—an aural space that invites inhabitation rather than consumption. In that sense, it aligns with a strain of spiritually inclined music that prioritizes atmosphere and intention over narrative drive, asking the listener to linger, listen closely, and notice what changes internally over time.
Shakti, a yogini and former punk musician, has long worked at the intersection of devotion and defiance, and “The Perfumed Garden” feels like a distilled expression of that duality. Her vocal approach is striking in its refusal to conform to Western pop expectations. She doesn’t aim for dramatic arcs or virtuosic display; instead, her voice circles around a handful of phrases with mantra-like persistence. The repetition of lines such as “I will walk to you” and “It’s everywhere” operates less as lyricism than as practice—an invitation to remain present with a single idea until its meaning deepens.
What’s notable is how unhurried the track feels. In an era when immediacy often masquerades as urgency, “The Perfumed Garden” trusts duration. The production, co-shaped with Saakhi, leaves deliberate pockets of space, allowing silence and sustain to function as active elements rather than gaps to be filled. This restraint lends the music a meditative quality, but it never drifts into passivity. There’s an undercurrent of momentum here, subtle but persistent, carried by rhythm and breath rather than tempo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtOwukqrVDg
The song’s spiritual roots—drawn from Shakti’s time with the Baul singers of India—are present not as stylistic ornamentation but as structural philosophy. Baul music values lived experience over formal polish, and that ethos resonates throughout the track. The performance feels embodied, almost tactile, as if movement and sound were conceived simultaneously. You can imagine this piece extending naturally into dance, procession, or ritual without needing alteration.
There’s also an intriguing tension between refinement and rawness. While the track is clearly intentional in its construction, it resists over-definition. Melodic lines bend and blur; harmonic resolution remains open-ended. This ambiguity creates a sense of permeability, encouraging listeners to project their own emotional or spiritual associations onto the music. It’s less about transmitting a fixed message than about holding space for reflection.
By the time “The Perfumed Garden” reaches its closing moments, it doesn’t feel concluded so much as gently released. The song lingers, like a scent that stays with you after leaving a room, subtle yet unmistakable. In that way, Ananda Xenia Shakti and Love Power the Band offer something increasingly rare: a piece of music that values attentiveness, patience, and presence. It doesn’t demand belief or comprehension—only willingness. And in that quiet ask, it finds its power.
–Nathan Chow