Australian artist Shyama has burst onto the scene with his new album "Nine Moons Walking", a concept album representing Shyama's transition from punk to monk. This record of self discovery and enlightenment has drawn comparisons to Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa and more. He's been called a "outer space folk cowboy" (M.Morgan) in an attempt to describe the indescribable. Shyama's scrupulous composing fuses orchestral and electronica with edgy alternative rock. The music explores deep and meaningful lows through to ecstatic highs. His thought-provoking lyrics promote a concentrated examination of the human condition. His songs have been called truly original (couerdazure.com) and have place highly at recent songwriting competitions. All this has not come easy.

"not alternative, not electronica, not rock, not classical, rather a hodge-podge of everything, a musical archive, extending far into the past, reaching beyond to the future, attempting to forge new calcinatory genre transmuted out of sound alchemy." - Julian Gorman

It's been a long journey for Shyama. He bought his first guitar at age 20. He deferred from his graphic design studies a year later to instead pursue music with Stuart Vincent. As Acoustic Black, based in Little River, the duo wrote and performed acoustic rock songs at universities and in pubs around Melbourne and Geelong. Fate would have it that the prodigy drummer they were looking for lived right down the road. Al Barber joined forces with Alfred and Stuart to form Incast.

Their sound developed into Gothic Punk and they found they had a talent for energizing audiences. They were described on the radio as the loudest acoustic band on Earth. Gradually, Shyama became dissatisfied with inciting drunken crowds and suffered from acute insomnia. In the wake of Kurt Cobain's suicide, he decided to embark on a vision quest. He burned all his possessions in a 'bonfire of purification.' On the streets as a penniless vagabond he searched for a new direction and survived solely on random acts of kindness. He describes his homeless adventures as 'liberating.' Observing from the perimeter, Shyama saw how stressed, rushed and unhappy his fellow humans seemed and he began to feel a deep sadness for those he felt were 'worked and entertained to a pulp.'

His new way of thinking was met with great resistance and he found himself face to face with a psychiatrist looking down the barrel of doing time. As an involuntary patient his rights were stripped. Disagreeing with the doctors' generic, mechanistic opinions he refused medication, but was overpowered by male nurses and forcibly injected with drugs over a one year period. This searching soul reviewed his life and confronted his demons during a period which he describes as 'an epic battle for survival.'

During one of his escape attempts, a chance encounter in Melbourne with a group of chanting and dancing Hare Krishnas uplifted his spirit. They gave him a book which inspired Shyama deeply and he changed his direction once again. His third escape was successful. He hitchhiked over the state border to a Hare Krishna farm and ended up finding harbor in a temple. When Shyama left temple life he decided to record his journey which eventually crystallized into Nine Moons Walking.

Nine Moons Walking is a truly original and emotionally honest work that will appeal to fans of multiple genres, including rock, psychedelic, pop, and alternative music.