Concert in the Cave

The instrumental group Ananda gave a concert on Sunday 4 July 2004 in a unique location: a large cave half way up a hill in the beautiful Lake District of England. Rydal Cave is a well-known local beauty spot and often gets visited by the many hikers in the area. The cave is a little dark at the back, so many candles were lit and placed on rocks all around the cave. Some were placed in the pools of water that are inside the cave. It looked very beautiful.

However, what was even more fantastic for me (as a singer) was the acoustics in the cave. You can sing, even quietly, at the back of the cave and it can still be heard at the entrance. There is so much natural reverb! When I listed to someone singing there it really reminded me of monastic chanting in a cathedral, where the sound just carries and carries...

There are a few practical problems to playing in a cave. For a start, we had to carry all the instruments about half a mile up a hill to get there. It rains quite a lot in the Lake District, and although we were blessed by sunshine at the time of the concert, previously there had been a lot of rain and there were quite a few drips coming from the roof of the cave. Apart from getting everyone a little wet, it makes a really nice background noise.

To see more pictures click here.

To listen to Ananda on Radio Sri Chinmoy click here