Here in Heaven (Remixes and Bonus Tracks) arrived on July 31, 2020, as a fifteen-track album from Girish, a kirtan artist who leads call-and-response chanting, live music and workshops. The title tells you something about its shape. It is a companion collection of remixes and bonus material, and it is best heard as an extension of a body of work rather than a standalone statement. No label is listed for the release, which fits an artist whose real home is the gathering rather than the marketplace.
Girish's reputation is built in live rooms: chant camps lasting several days, retreats built around chant, rhythm, breath and shared singing, and music played alongside yoga classes. His site describes music and mantra as a path to the joy, healing and freedom that come from giving voice to what lives within us. Recordings are one way that practice travels out of the room.
A remixes-and-bonus collection is a different kind of document from a studio-first album. It lets a listener hear familiar devotional material turned over and re-seen. That makes it a natural second or third stop in his catalog rather than a first one. For someone new, the verified guidance is to begin with his Spotify catalog and YouTube channel, and to treat this record as a way to stay with the sound once it has taken hold.
Girish's sound rests on the foundations of kirtan: his voice, harmonium and tabla. His tone is clear and grounded, without ornament or showboating. Pacing is deliberate and unhurried, and repetition is the point. A single phrase loops and evolves, with the tabla setting a cyclical rhythm that invites you into a trance-like focus rather than toward a dramatic climax.
I can't tell you track by track what each remix changes, because the album's specific production details aren't something I can verify. What I can say is that a remix collection sits in a space where that core vocabulary of voice, harmonium and rhythm may be reframed, so listen for how the familiar pulse and call-and-response feel behave when they are arranged differently. Expect mood to stay meditative and devotional, since that is the center of gravity of his work.
I'm holding back on naming individual tracks. The facts available for this album give a title, a date and a track count of fifteen, but no track list, and inventing titles would be a disservice to you. Here is how to find your own signature tracks instead:
- The opening track. In kirtan, the first phrase sets the room. Notice how the voice enters and how quickly the rhythm settles.
- The track where the pulse changes most. On a remix collection, the version that moves furthest from a plain kirtan feel shows what the material can bear.
- The longest track. Repetition does its work over many minutes, so the longer pieces are where the practice deepens.
- The last track. Listen to how the album lets go of you.
Open the album on Spotify and let the track list guide your own notes.
Kirtan is a living tradition of Hindu devotional chanting built on call-and-response singing, rhythm and the recitation of Sanskrit mantras. It is non-dogmatic and participatory by design, and it belongs to a pan-Indian practice of singing the names and praises of the divine. Harmonium, tabla and the human voice are its primary instruments.
Girish works within that tradition. His bio does not name specific teachers or a guru lineage, so I won't assign one. What it does show is a leader who puts the community at the center. A Sacred Choir sits at the heart of his gatherings, every voice is welcome, and the group's response becomes the heartbeat of the practice. His grounding in rhythm and Indian classical structure separates his sound from more pop-influenced or New Age mantra music. A remix record is a modern gloss on that tradition, and its pleasure lies in the tension between ancient form and contemporary treatment.
His work also reaches into sound healing through Attuned Soundscapes, customized soundscapes tuned to a person's own singing bowls, and into Saraswati Muse, an essential oil blend made as an ode to the Goddess of Creative Flow and Soulful Wisdom. Those threads suggest a musician who thinks about devotion across more than one sense, and this album can be heard in that spirit.
This album meets people who already have some relationship with chant: yoga practitioners who know the feeling of a room singing together, and students who have attended a workshop or drop-in circle and want to carry it home. It is especially good for someone between gatherings, in a stretch of life where the communal experience is missed or out of reach, and a recording can hold the thread.
It is less likely to suit listeners who want high-energy electronic music, instrumental virtuosity apart from lyrical meaning, or secular wellness music. Kirtan asks for presence, and it is not passive background. Anyone uncomfortable with devotional Sanskrit repetition may find it a poor fit.
Give it an unhurried evening, alone, with headphones. Start from the first track and let the repetition do its slow work instead of skipping ahead. Sing under your breath if the urge comes, since the form is built for response. If you practice yoga, play it during a restorative or yin session, or fold it into a quiet ritual at the end of the day.
Then, if the sound speaks to you, take the next step the music points toward: a live circle, where the call and the answer happen in the same room. Girish's website, girishmusic.com, is the place to look for workshops and retreats.
