Karen Salicath Jamali drifts into a new creative world on ‘Om Mare Shangri-la’

For an artist whose musical identity has long been shaped by instrumental composition, 'Om Mare Shangri-la' represents a notable change of direction. Karen Salicath Jamali’s first full vocal album brings together nine original songs, shifting her attention towards voice, acoustic guitar and contemporary folk while retaining the meditative character that has defined much of her earlier work.

She has spent more than a decade developing music around stillness, dreams and spiritual reflection, and those ideas remain at the centre of the record. But what changes is the way they are communicated. Lyrics now sit alongside the atmosphere, giving her themes of connection, love and consciousness a more direct human presence.

Focus track ‘The Ocean of the Seals’ is built around a gentle indie-folk framework, considering the possibility of returning, beyond separation and mortality, to something larger and more loving. Its strength lies in how little it tries to force that idea, allowing the song to remain contemplative and giving the imagery room to settle.

There's also something significant about hearing an artist with such an established instrumental catalogue embrace another form so fully. Her piano work has taken her to Carnegie Hall and reached listeners around the world, yet 'Om Mare Shangri-la' feels far more exploratory than anything else she has released so far.

Gentle, acoustic and deliberately inward-looking, 'Om Mare Shangri-la presents Karen Salicath Jamali at another point of transition. Less about abandoning her past, it's about finding a new way to articulate the same search for peace, meaning and connection that has run through her work for years.