7 Valleys: An Album by Paloma Marin

Paloma Marin is a pianist, visual artist, and jeweler based out of Bogota, Colombia, and she’s recently released a beautiful instrumental piano album called 7 Valleys, which is inspired by Baha’u’llah’s mystic and poetic work, The Seven Valleys.

The sound engineer and producer of the album Daniel Badi Rinaldi, told me that when recording the album, they made sure the whole process was a spiritual one. Before recording, they both read all of The Seven Valleys.

I caught up with both Paloma Marin to find out more about her new album 7 Valleys:

Baha’i Blog: Hi Paloma, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Where you’re from, what you do, and your musical background?

I’m from Bogota the capital city of Colombia. I play piano, I like to paint and do jewelry. This is what I do almost everyday, I also have other side projects of poetry and sound design.

Baha’i Blog: What was the idea behind this album and what inspired you to make it?

I’ve always questioned myself about the purpose of life, why humans exists on this planet, and that search led me to find the Baha’i Faith and of course the book ‘The Seven Valleys’. The songs of the album are compositions which I have been working on since I was younger, and talk about different moments of my life. After reading the book, which talks about the journey of the soul on this earth I felt like each one of the compositions I chose reflected in a musical way the valleys I was reading. That’s how the album ‘7 Valleys’ was born.

Baha’i Blog: Can you tell us a little bit about ‘The Seven Valleys’ by Baha’u’llah, and what touches you about these works?

The whole concept of the book and the way it is written, which is very mystic and poetic, is what touches me. Through metaphors it talks about what the soul longs for, which is finding some sort of truth which I call ‘God’ or ‘universal consciousness’. It’s something which is hard to put in words, and that you just feel deep inside as a feeling of freedom and peace. That’s what touched me from the book, the fact that it states that there is a purpose to this life. It’s hard sometimes, to live this human experience without knowing anything, without having some sort of guidance.

Baha’i Blog: How do you hope your album will affect others?

I hope the people who connect with the album are inspired and raise their awareness regarding love, unity, kindness, freedom, spirituality, art and music. We can be an incredible species if we become aware of our virtues, and through them, our potential to create.

Baha’i Blog: Thanks so much Paloma for taking the time to do this interview, and congratulations on the release of your album!

You can find out more about Paloma Marin and her album 7 Valleys here on her website, and listen to and purchase the album here on 9 Star Media.

Baha’u’llah’s mystic and poetic work titled ‘The Seven Valleys’, of which this album is based on can be found here on the Baha’i Reference Library.

NOTE: Special thanks to Daniel Badi Rinaldi for translating this interview from Spanish to English.

Posted by

Naysan Naraqi

Naysan is passionate about using the arts and media to explore the teachings of the Baha’i Faith. Back in 2011, Naysan started up the Baha’i Blog project, channeling his experiences in both media and technology companies to help create a hub for Baha’i-inspired content online.