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Music Mosaic - The Perfect Fit

Author: michelle pirovich
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
World-groove label 'Music Mosaic' is all about putting the world into perspective. Discovering talent from our shores and abroad, Music Mosaic have come to the forefront of multi-cultural expression. "We hope that through our music we can encourage all cultures and nations to live together respectfully on our planet Earth."

Ama Kalma is owner and Managing Director of Music Mosaic. Together with her husband and a small but dedicated team they have to date produced thirteen uniquely different albums, each exposing the vast talent that exists throughout the world.

As Ama explains the label originally began as an online custom CD service, its purpose - to find a platform with which to spread the word of peace through the sound of multiculturalism.

"My husband is a producer, sound engineer, composer and musician and I have been working as a small business consultant for over 20 years. It was and is a perfect fit."

"First we created a web site where you could make your own custom CD (www.musicalacarte.net ). It took us 12 months to set it up, to get about 40 independent international artists and 5 labels to sign a license agreement and to license tracks to us. The web site is a wonderful tool but barely anybody used it because it took too long to select tracks. It was a flop!"

Not to be discouraged however, Ama and Ariel who were left with an amazing array of music on their database took it upon themselves to begin compiling CD's and releasing them locally.

"We realized that we had a fabulous database of music, and that we should select the tracks (instead of our customers) and offer professionally made multicultural compilation CDs by theme. In July 2001 we released our first 4 albums."

'Didgeridoo Trance Dance,' 'Lotus Groove,' 'Healing Sounds' and 'Inner Peace' were to become the start of something exciting and inspirational. Frequently dismissed, World Music is often looked upon as being arrant noise that all sounds the same; a myth which Music Mosaic quickly dispelled.

Featuring artists from India, Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia, Music Mosaic have consistently tapped into that something extra that only exists beyond the surface. To the surprise of many, alongside the traditional sounds of drums, flutes, pipes, tablas and chants are the workings of modern day electronica.

It's the modernisation of these traditional sounds that have had the works of Music Mosaic effortlessly captivating today's audience. From beats bold and percussive to shuffling and gyrating to the awe inspiring fast minimal techno, chilled out house, and anthemic trance, there isn't a style that 'Music Mosaic' hasn't unleashed.

'When people listen to our music I want them to feel uplifted and relaxed, as well as becoming curious towards new sounds and rhythms from other countries and cultures. We want people to develop a tolerance towards people from different backgrounds, and hopefully realise that independent artists compose some excellent music.'

Discovering the artists for Music Mosaic's albums is an ongoing process, but with a steadily growing reputation for producing high quality compilations, the artists are now coming to them.

"Years ago, Ariel, my partner in life and business, had been traveling all over the globe as a musician and had lots of contacts to artists in different countries. At the beginning he needed to revive these contacts and convince the often skeptical artists that we are doing something special and royalties will be the reward. This took a while. Also, he researches music web sites on the Internet and finds lots of jewels. Now, things have changed. We have an excellent presence on the Internet, artists find us and we receive CD submissions almost daily, and - to our delight - more and more from artists/groups that were reluctant at the beginning of our enterprise."

As the number of artists awaiting their place on the next compilation increases, many other changes have taken place since<
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