Pranava is a music project by Amrita Sivanand and friends.In 1978, at the age of 14, Amrita (Maria) was introduced to the punkrock scene at the Eksit Club in Rotterdam. Two years later she purchased her first instrument, a bass guitar, to line up in The Astrays and De Kroepoeks (No Comment). As most friends were involved in music, playing in different bands, sometimes they would meet for jamsessions at the Jazzbunker and calling themselves Ria & De Nozems (Rita & The Rascals), covering old rock songs and just having fun. Her friend Mario Strörmann aka Snowball Johnny, then first suggested that she play the drums, which she did for three years.
From 1986 Amrita practiced and studied different forms of Yoga and Advaita Vedanta. Because of her interest, for 10 years she worked as a freelance journalist for Hindu magazines and radio. She learned to read the Devanagri script in order to understand Sanskrit texts, and learned to chant mantras in satsanga with different teachers. Amrita was trained in Kriya Yoga and established as a yogacharya in the Netherlands, but decided to break all formal bonds with any organisation in 2005.
After 20 years of silence in the field of music, and in a renewed contact with an old friend musician, creative energies started to flow out again. Also once more encouraged by her friend Mario, Amrita started to play drums again, experimenting with different instruments and vocals, recording songs as a one woman band. Thus Pranava was born, an experimental project embracing all influences and inspiration in music and life. In 2006, Droidy, English DJ living in Austria, made a remix of Amrita's first song 'Namo Namo'. New songs - also in English - will be recorded soon.
