Lindie Lila is a Cape Town-based singer songwriter (and belly dancer), presenting a mystically soulful and delicately intimate style of organic folk music; music that whispers on the breath of sacred mountains carried in the heat of a middle Earth fire; music that stirs memories of ancient ritual wrought with soul-shaping passion; music as initiation into forgotten worlds previously unknown by mortals. A singer “since birth”, Lindie Lila wrote her first proper song at the tender age of nine. On leaving school she studied Jazz at the Pretoria Technikon and it was here that she fell in love with the art of Middle Eastern Dance. After five years of studying dance, she graduated to instructing the art of belly dance. She set up her own dance studio and began performing as a professional dancer. In this period she also started writing music extensively and in 2006 she traded her dancing career to become a fulltime singer songwriter. Together with Jason Tamba; a gifted musician from the Congo, she formed an acoustic folk band called Bayembi Spirit. The band was a platform for Lila to expand her own repertoire whilst absorbing influence from her band mate’s West African musical heritage. In 2006 Lindie Lila began production on her 2nd album. In 2007 she incorporated a third band member into Bayembi Spirit - Ronan Skillen; a gifted Indian Tabla player and master didgeridoo percussionist. Lindie shaped the band’s sound to be their own; rich in influences from West-Africa and the Middle East with a heady dash of New Age Folk thrown in just for good measure. Jack Mantis stepped in as co-producer, sound engineer and song arranger on the second album with able musicians David Leadbetter, Ronan Skillen and Jason Tamba on instruments. Although never officially “released”, the CD entitled ‘Moondance’ had already sold 300 copies by January 2008. In that same month, Lindie Lila became the first Middle Eastern Dancer in South Africa to dance to wholly South African made and produced music at the SA Belly Dance Festival held in Cape Town. It was also at this festival that she met Hettienne Grobler; a Priestess and Sacred Dance instructor, who asked Lindie to compose the theme song for the forthcoming International Goddess Conference to be held in Franschhoek in the Cape in 2008. (This festival is similar to the annual Goddess Festival held in Glastonbury). This event began a whole new school of thought and new direction for the talented songstress and became the inspiration to start her own music label and so Goddess Music was born. The label aims to be a welcoming home for other Goddess type music both locally and abroad. Since 2005, Lindie Lila shared the stage with other notable South African acts the likes of DNA Strings, Jan Blom, Karin Zoid, Malaika, Arno Carstens, Mbongiseni Ngubane (Swazi singer songwriter), Mluleki Dlamini (Swazi pianist), Tsepho Tshola, Louis Mhlanga, Kunle Ayo and other Jazz greats. She has opened shows for Dozi, Gian Groen, Luna and many more. Since 2006 Lindie Lila has toured the country with Jason Tamba and has appeared at many music festivals (including Innibos in Mpumalanga, Aardklop in Potchefstroom and K.K.N.K 2007) to great response; her combination of West-African, Middle Eastern and contemporary folk styles (sung in English, West-African, French and Afrikaans!), providing music that is easy on the ear and nourishing to the soul. Lindie Lila now devotes her time to furthering the awareness and growth of both World Music and acoustic music in South Africa. Early on in 2008, she released her third album entitled Return of The Goddess (including the chant ‘Mama Gaia’) - music dedicated to the spirit of woman. This album contains nine powerful and deeply stirring chants that sees Lindie Lila’s vocals employed to their absolute powerful best with only minimal instrumentation in the form of flutes, didgeridoo, panpipes and exotic percussion. The album is released on her own label - Goddess Music. "My music is folk music; simple but powerful. I use elements of space and intimacy to connect on a personal level with the soul of my audience.” “An altered state of mind is a very personal space to share - that moment of oneness in a song; that’s what makes it all worthwhile - those moments with just me, the music, my fellow musicians and our audience." –Lindie Lila “There is no way to explain (this show) with words, just as you cannot explain an exotic dish when someone only gives you the recipe…” Mariana Malan - Die Burger “(Her) voice touches and awakens chords in me that were dormant - a true goddess.” Barbara Cowly - Peace PRO Genre: Folk, Light Jazz, World, Pagan, Goddess music, Woman spirituality For further information, images, audio samples and press opportunities, please contact publicist Jon Monsoon. Tel: +27 (0)21 469-2514 e-mail: monsoon@p1mp.co.za Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.