The Creation of the Album: "Tibetan Peace Prayer"

by Finn Byrum, April 2022

Recipe:

Mix two Danes from North Jutland, add a Tibetan lama, and season with some local musicians.

Our meeting with Lakha Lama in 2007 became one of many and resulted in the album (music CD) “Tibetan Peace Prayer” that my then wife and I had been talking about for several years.
The idea was to portray Buddhism through music by combining Lakha Lama’s chanting of Tibetan prayers and his amazing life story with the right music.

With the help of Anne Blom from North Jutland, we borrowed Nörrebjergård near Göttrup, so that Lakha Lama’s chanting could be recorded over 2-3 hours with the resounding acoustics of the dome hall.

We hired a professional sound engineer from Aarhus for the recordings. The venue provided optimal acoustic support and we achieved the desired sound. It was a pleasure to have Lakha Rinpoche stay with us during the recording, which also provided ample opportunities to talk about the style of music, the messages, and the final finish for the album.

We had several rounds of searching for a composer who could write music that complemented Lakha Lama’s melodic chants. We went as far as considering a classical composer in Spain before we found the perfect match, in the local North Jutland area. The talented and renowned local musician, Nikolaj Heyman Christensen, agreed to join the project and compose music from scratch. He used the best choir and everything else that could do justice to such a significant production. It felt like Christmas Eve every time Heyman introduced us to a new track, which was always right in the spirit that Lakha Lama had been asking for during our many conversations at the beginning of the process.

When, after just over a year, we finally completed the album and presented it to Lakha Lama, we were of course anxious to hear if we had achieved our goal. Lakha Lama was very excited by the final result, which was a satisfying red bow on the project and our intended message. We hope it is a reminder that despite the hectic lives people live today, they have the ability to look into themselves, and, not least, also a reminder of Lakha Lama’s story and the tragic recent history of Tibet.

Our personal wishes for the project are that the music, the prayers, chanting, and messages live on, giving rise to reflection and contemplation in a hectic world.