Beyond ‘Love Within’: Blog Review

In 1986, Tina Turner in collaboration with Kurt Loder published the interview-style top selling biography, ‘I, Tina’. Back then, the world discovered the multiple struggles that young Anna Mae faced during her early life as well as during her turbulent relationship with cocaine-addicted guitar-genius Ike Turner (1931-2007).

While the journalists and the general audience were amazed by the resilience and strength of the forty-seven-year-old singer, few understood that behind Tina’s success, there was a very disciplined mental training. Tina was introduced to a new way of thinking according to the rules of the Lotus Sutra: one of several forms of Buddhist-practice inspired by the life of monk Nichiren (13th century A.D.) This is the path that  born Baptist Tina Turner followed since the mid-seventies, faithfully mixing it with the Lord prayers. While promoting her biography and years later Disney’s biopicture ‘What’s Love Got To Do With it?’, the question had to be asked: Would Tina be willing to write a book about her journey in Buddhism, would she tell how it could also help us overcome our daily problems and how to get to the point where you feel physically and mentally balanced?

The fans waited patiently but besides a few interviews about her faith, Tina remained silent.

Finally, a part of the answer arrived in Zurich during the spring of 2009. At seventy years old and after an eight-month-long farewell tour, Turner teamed with good friends Regula Curti and Tibetan singer Dechen Shak-Dagsay on what would become the first ‘Beyond’ album followed two years later by ‘Children Beyond’. Now, the Beyond ladies are back with a new opus ‘Beyond: Love Within’.

It is tradition to open the Beyond albums with a spiritual message. And this album is no exception. The opening track ‘Love Within’ starts as a rising sun and delivers a strong, personal message spoke by Tina:

 “I go Beyond my history, beyond my life experience, my wounds and my sufferings. I go beyond, beyond.”

Regula Curti: “to create such a message is a long process. Tina and I met several times, we talked a lot, feeling each other and Tina delivered it right away, giving it her own color.”

The result is a 10 minute song mixing Indian sounds, Christian supplication and references to Buddhahood. Tina unites the ensemble with her still strong, deep , low voice and ends the song with a breathtaking rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’. And that gives the tone of what’s to follow and as in the first Beyond CD, each song is a mixture of different cultures and faiths.

Tina appears on a few other tracks. Reciting the Lord’s Prayer on ‘Almighty’, bringing you to tears with her vocals on ‘Mother Within’ singing the verses of ‘I Am A Motherless Child’; a song she already recorded for the Ike & Tina album ‘Outta Season’.

Soprano Regula Curti, appears on every track  singing Christian prayers while Tibetan singer Dechen Shak-Dagsay contributes with her very distinctive voice to the songs with traditional Tibetan Buddhist. In addition to the Beyond team, comes Hindu singer Sawani Shende-Sataye. Her crystal clear diction and overall sensitivity brings a new dimension to the Beyond album series.

From the haunting melodies of ‘Wisdom’ to the uplifting rhythm of ‘Divine Mother’ and the melancholic melody of  “Compassion”, Regula Curti and Swiss producer Roland Frei created a large range of sensations, sounds and emotions. The album closes with ‘Oneness’ where ‘Amen’ mingles with ‘Om’ and ‘Om Ah Hum’. Tina’s powerful Amens seem to emanate from her entrails. The heartbreaking vocals she delivers on that song carries the challenges of her life and the hope for a better future.

GET ‘BEYOND’ (2009): http://goo.gl/uYccFZ
GET ‘CHILDREN BEYOND’ (2011): http://goo.gl/vfrDek
GET “BEYOND ‘LOVE WITHIN’ (2014): http://goo.gl/hiuNOG