Folk/Review Karen Salicath Jamali - Om Mare Shangri-la
Karen Salicath Jamali has been a multi-award-winning composer, pianist, guitarist, songwriter, and producer since 2015 and a professional American artist, painter, sculptor, and photographer for the last 30 years. Born in Denmark and living and working in NYC & Orlando, voting member of The Recording Academy/Grammy.
“Om Mare Shangri-la” marks a fascinating new chapter in Karen Salicath Jamali’s artistic evolution. After more than a decade of creating dream-received piano compositions, the album introduces a more personal dimension to her work, bringing together voice, lyrics and acoustic guitar across her first nine songs as a singer-songwriter.
At the center of the album is “The Ocean of The Seals,” an intimate contemporary and indie folk composition that explores eternal love, spirituality and the idea of returning to an infinite ocean of love beyond earthly life and separation. Rather than treating these themes as abstract concepts, Jamali connects them to an intensely personal experience that has informed her creative journey.
The album is deeply rooted in her 2012 near-death experience, during which she describes encountering an immense ocean of consciousness. From that experience came an understanding of love, sound and humanity’s deeper connection, ideas that now find another form through songwriting. This background gives “Om Mare Shangri-la” an unusually intimate foundation, as the music becomes a means of expressing experiences that are difficult to communicate through conventional language.
The shift from piano composition to voice and acoustic guitar also represents more than a change in instrumentation. It brings Jamali closer to the listener, allowing melody to coexist with words and giving her reflections a direct human presence. There is a sense of openness in this transition, as years of instrumental expression develop into a more vulnerable songwriting language.
“Om Mare Shangri-la” ultimately feels like an album about connection: between life and what may lie beyond it, between sound and emotion, and between individual experience and something greater. It is a deeply personal and contemplative introduction to Jamali’s voice as a singer-songwriter.
