In September we re-launched our Studio Sessions initiative, after over a year’s hiatus, by sharing new songs from Brisbane, Edinburgh, Budapest and Marbella. Last month Jordan Raj travelled around Australia on a Studio Sessions whirlwind tour, recording songs in Canberra, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Cairns, and Hobart! We’re hard at work preparing these songs for release but in the meantime, here’s a glimpse of some of the love and enthusiasm that was infused into this project by friends in a handful of Australian cities!
If you are unfamiliar with our Studio Sessions, it’s a musical initiative where we invite Baha’is and their friends to come into a studio to sing an original song based on the Baha’i Writings or letters of Shoghi Effendi or the Universal House of Justice. We then make these videos and audio recordings available on our YouTube Channel and SoundCloud page and we include the lyrics or the quotations sung as well as the chords played to help make it easy to learn, sing along or sing in your homes and communities.
Over the years, we’ve shared more than 400 songs from 44 locations and in 33 different languages!! We were really delighted with how well this initiative was received but when the pandemic hit, the Studio Sessions took on a whole new level of preciousness—all the work that went into performing and recording the songs, sharing them online and creating a robust and diverse playlist, as well as having a reservoir of unpublished music to share week after week of lockdown, was rewarded in more ways than we could count as cities and villages shut down, as borders closed, and as community life, for many, became virtual and the songs were played at online holy day commemorations, Feasts, devotional gatherings and meetings.
We have been so moved to hear from friends about how Studio Sessions have assisted them with memorizing prayers, have uplifted their spirits, have increased their love and connection with the Beloved, have helped galvanize communities and bring people together, or have touched the hearts of neighbours, friends and family who are learning about the Faith.
We release a new song every week so stay tuned! A huge thank you to all the participants for contributing their time and talents to this project!
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In her innermost heart, Sonjel is a stay-at-home parent and a bookworm with a maxed out library card but professionally she is a museologist with a background in English Literature. She currently lives on Prince Edward Island, an isle in the shape of a smile on the eastern Canadian coast. Sonjel is a writer who loves to listen to jazz when she's driving at night.