Photo: Steven Sebring

Pioneering avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, Tibetan singer and multi-instrumentalist Tenzin Choegyal, and activist and composer Jesse Paris Smith have teamed up for a collaborative long-form composition called Songs from the Bardo. Based on the text of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and first performed at New York’s Rubin Museum of Art, Songs from the Bardo will be released on September 27th through Smithsonian Folkways. Choegyal, who was forced out of his homeland into exile in India, explains in the album’s liner notes, “I have tried to channel the wisdom and traditions of my ancestors through my music in a very contemporary way while holding the depth of my lineage.”

To celebrate the album announcement, they have shared the immersive and contemplative “Lotus Born, No Need to Fear”. Take a listen now.