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| blue alert 2006
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Written and arranged by Anjani and Leonard Cohen and produced by Cohen, Blue Alert melds haunting melodies with exquisite lyrical imagery leading us gently along the erotic landscape with stories of desire and despair.
Listen to songs at Anjani's myspace.com.
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Blue Alert is a deceptively simple collection of bittersweet songs cut from the cloth of love, loss and redemption. This collaboration between Anjani and Leonard Cohen is calm and controlled but challenging ideas bristle and flay beneath the polished surface.
The poetic voice informing the singer breathes unselfconsciously into Anjani's vocals, and rather than being distracted by the beauty of her voice, the beauty becomes a safe passage, in. Listening to Blue Alert results in the record revealing itself differently with every play. Ephemeral and relaxing, the sound experience could stay there if Anjani was not at the top of her interpretive game. She offers up lines that alternately cajole and coerce the listener into other realms throughout the disc. Leading the ear and heart to remember things unspoken, Anjani is seer and interpreter of the insistent shapes beyond the words.
Initially inspired by a newly minted poem of Cohen's titled Blue Alert, a further mining of his journals transformed bits and pieces of lyrics into a full-blown album, with Anjani writing, arranging and performing all of the music. At first, the simplicity of her arrangements may seem sparse. A listener expects more guitar, drums and perhaps strings to anchor his preconceptions of music to. In the early stages of recording this project, Anjani may have agreed. "Leonard gave me free reign to try all kinds of ideas on all the songs. But his lyrics give the listener so much to process that most of the additional instrumentation detracted from the message. He taught me to trust in the simplicity…so I focused on creating a pure vessel for the voice."
This marrying of Cohen's minimalism with Anjani's musicality has led to a set of contemporary standards that sound like classic songs you think you should know. Never underestimating their listener's intelligence and aesthetic perception, Anjani and Cohen have sculpted a record for the ages that - like a good wine - will grow more complex and subtle with the passage of time.
What people are saying about Blue Alert:
Anjani's Blue Alert CD is a masterpiece. This young woman from Hawaii is the kind of chanteuse that all singers aspire to and few attain. She's a mood weaver.
Bettie Snyder, Coffeerooms
These are the kind of love-gone-wrong torch songs that are so gorgeous they actually make you glad to know what it means to have a broken heart... Both Anjani’s sultry voice and precise piano accompaniment imbue this album with a heady atmosphere that’s irresistible.
Gillian G. Gaar, Harp
I guarantee you will never hear this more than once and experience the same recording, music, and words... Play it; a lot.
Gary Peterson, BrooWaha San Francisco
Anjani is a serious musician and soulful singer who has co-written this album with the great Leonard Cohen. It's a very grownup view of romance and disappointment.
Bill Flanagan, CBS Sunday Morning
Stay with this disc; give it a few spins and you’ll find it, as Anjani sings in the noirish "Half the Perfect World," "transparent, weightless, luminous … unwilled, unleashed, unbound."
This Week in New York
Anjani "has an exquisite voice. But here she drops her soprano down a notch and sounds like Cohen reincarnated as woman. With her hypnotic vocals harnessed to his lyrics, Blue Alert's torch songs put her in a league with Diana Krall and Norah Jones. And though Cohen doesn't sing a note on the album, his voice permeates it like smoke."
Brian D. Johnson, Maclean's
more reviews
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| dear heather 2004
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On Leonard Cohen's latest effort, the sound of his gravelly baritone speaks as much as his poems. "Villanelle for Our Time" features him reciting beautiful lyrics set against barely audible keys, a quietly strummed stand-up bass and lightly brushed drums. Anjani Thomas accompanies him on eight of the 12 songs, bringing a perfect balance to his rumbles with her light, soft voice. The effect of their duet skirts religious territory in "The Faith," where an oud is the only thing that stops it from becoming a hymn. Though intensely lonely in its stark acoustics, Dear Heather is warm enough to feel as if it could commiserate.
Paper Magazine
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The key line in On That Day, Cohen's song about 9/11, is "I wouldn't know". This also serves as the theme of the album. Cohen merely observes; he doesn't interpret. Years living in a Buddhist monastery probably do that to you. Maybe reaching the age of 70 does too. Despite his age, there is more than a hint that Cohen has been tuning in to urban stations: the way he talks round the beat, steps back to let the female singers handle the chorus; the sexual thrust of his lyrics on Because Of (well, that's not new); the lovely soul chord changes on The Letters (which just begs to be covered by Jill Scott). Throw in waltzes, cool jazz, quasi-hymns, slinky beats and some country, and this might be the man's most musically diverse album. It's up there with his best, too.
ME, Sunday London Times
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| the sacred names 2001 lyrics
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"With its sense of heartfelt
compassion and all-embracing reverence, Anjani's voice is like
hearing the music inside the temple of the heart. It is as
inspiring as it is inspired... Anjani delivers a genuine
performance in the flame of the human soul."
Dr. J.J. Hurtak
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Written, arranged and produced by Anjani, The Sacred Names
illuminates the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek names of God in ten
songs of praise. Anjani's celestial contralto is paired with
classical guitar on several tracks, including the vocal tour
de force, Kyrie.
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| anjani 2000
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Anjani has been called a
singer's singer, and her self-penned CD is an exemplary
song-writer's debut. No hard grooves here, just a long, cool
drink at the well of life. Ki ho'alu master Ozzie Kotani,
creates slack key guitar magic on Kanaloa, a duet with Henry
Kapono and Anjani. Other guest artists include Osamu Kitajima,
bassist Scott Ambush (Spyro Gyra), and Grammy winner Frank
Gambale on classical guitar.
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| okinawa time 1989
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Osamu Kitajima's signature
sound blends synthesizers with traditional Japanese
instruments such as the koto and biwa. Inspired by the music
of Okinawa's renowned Rinken Band, Osamu sought to create a
contemporary version of their music. But first, he had to find
an artist who could emulate singer Tomoko Teruya's remarkable
vocals. After an extensive search he discovered Anjani, whose
Okinawan grandmother always kept the radio tuned to Asian folk
music. Once Anjani wrote English lyrics to Osamu's
arrangements that captured the spirit of Rinken Band, they
were on the way to creating a sonic hybrid of East and West,
with elements of jazz, New Age, world and folk music. Okinawa
Time features guest appearances by Rinken, Tomoko Teruya,
Hiromitsu Nishikawa (Japan's preeminent traditional
percussionist) and world renown concert shakuhachi artist,
Masakazu
Yoshizawa.
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Other Music
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| leonard cohen by en boca de 2011
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Anjani's live recording of "Thanks for the Dance" from the album Acordes Con Leonard Cohen appears on this compilation album devoted to the music of Leonard Cohen. Anjani performed the song at Teatre Auditori de Sant Cugar del Vallès, Barcelona on January 13, 2007.
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