Nina Hagen
Om Namah Shivay!

The importance of being Nina Hagen: curiosity, extravagances, and other wonderful anomalies, chapter III.

"You can be anything you want to be, just turn yourself into anything you think that you could ever be, be free with your tempo, be free, be free, surrender your ego, be free to yourself".

Why on earth, you may ask, open a review on Nina Hagen by quoting "Innuendo"? Simple, because in this verse lies the entire mentality, the spirit that led to the creation of this album. Courage, freedom, and meticulousness: if you remember well, Nina Hagen is the one who, in "African Reggae," was not so subtly dismissing forced globalization and the commodification of cultures. As always, consistent and faithful to her principles, she immerses herself completely in the context she wants to tackle, severing all estrangement, momentarily cutting ties with her past. Since the highly publicized journey of the Beatles, the sounds of the Subcontinent have been an inspiration from which many have drawn, but Nina is different; she is more radical in her choices, producing an album of Hindu religious chants, entirely sung in Sanskrit, with practically no "Western" concessions. Essentially, she puts her persona at the service of the music and not the other way around, "surrender your ego," indeed.

"Om Namah Shivay" arrives in 1999, interrupting a period of silence following the release of the punk-influenced and not particularly successful "FreuD euch"/"Bee Happy." The songs, albeit of a standard average duration of 4/5 minutes, do not follow the classic verse-chorus structure but are chants of a few continually repeated phrases; a fascinating and extremely musical language greatly aids the listener in immersing themselves in these unusual scenarios for us Westerners, and overall, the album proves to be a surprisingly simple and immediate listen. "Hare Krshna Hare Rama" is the perfect example; in this harmonic counterpoint of male and female voices, Nina Hagen joins the choir, is an integral component that stands out—it couldn’t be otherwise, but does not overshadow the others. "Om Namah Shivay" traverses different emotional scenarios and states of mind; it seems like anything but a "sung mass." For example, one of the most striking episodes of the work, "He Shiva Shankara!", brings to mind atmospheres and scenes from the "summer of '68," with that hint of initial electric guitar and its hypnotic and sensual rhythm marked by tribal percussion, while "Jai Mata Kali Jai Mata Durge!" sounds like a clear confirmation for all those who have unconsciously always known that Nina Hagen is nothing more than an avatar of the goddess Kali; a solemn, hieratic, and dark ceremonial that contrasts with the sweet and soothing chanting of "Shri Siddha Siddeshvari Mata Haidhakandeshvariji Mata".

Passing through moments of introspection and contemplation like "Om Namah Shivay!" and the evocative "Oh Mata Haidhakandeshvare!" and brief mantras separating the pivotal episodes of the album cementing its coherence and creating a continuum of sounds and atmospheres, the ritual finally reaches its emotional climax with "Sankirtana!", which had already appeared as "Omhaidakhandi" in "Revolution Ballroom," but in this more choral version, placed in its natural context, the outcome is much more solemn, an intertwining of voices proceeding with epic intensity, vaguely reminiscent, a bit for the musicality, a bit also for the purely phonetic sound, of a folk song from southern Italy, Apulian or Calabrian to be precise. The expansive and consoling "Hara Hara Amarnatha Gange" closes this unusual and emblematic parenthesis as best as it could be, a path that no more or less mainstream Western pop artist has ever wanted or been able to undertake, an album not difficult and sophisticated at all, on the contrary, very simple and almost repetitive in its structures, authentically popular as Nina herself has always been, despite appearances, able to capitalize on all her talent and still capable of surprising even though her personal inspiration begins its descending arc. Still capable of producing interesting records like "Return Of The Mother."

Judging by appearances, an operation like this might seem like yet another abstruse idea of an eccentric who has seen better days, but there's no more stupid and superficial assessment than this: "Om Namah Shivay" is precisely the opposite, a humble and sincere work, which among other things does not even have any preaching or propagandistic ulterior motives, it's simply immersion and representation, staged with charisma and conviction; a record worth listening to in my opinion, and despite everything, a record in the purest Nina Hagen style, which, let's remember, is not a sound but an ideal.