Spirit of Love

If the average new age fan were to encounter the debut album by Maya & Sage in a record store, the cover, Barry Stevens' painting, "Mandala 'Radiance'," which shows a man and a woman in traditional Indian style, likely would suggest to that potential buyer that the album Spirit of Love, subtitled Devotional Chanting & Spiritual Love Songs, was an album of contemplative music with a becalmed, ethereal tone. It is not. While Maya Knowles and her harmonizing husband Sage Knowles do sing repetitive phrases in Sanskrit at several points on the disc, notably the tracks "Jai Sita Ram" and "Lakshmi Ma," Spirit of Love is not really an album to meditate to. It's more an album to dance to, especially for fans of late-'60s pop music. With Maya's reedy voice and catchy tunes matched to Sage's folk-rock arrangements, the songs and performances recall several one-hit-wonder duos of the 1968-1969 period, Friend & Lover ("Reach Out of the Darkness"), Esther & Abi Ofarim ("Cinderella Rockefella"), and even Zager & Evans ("In the Year 2525"), who were both men. If these references are a little too obscure, imagine the Mamas & the Papas or Spanky & Our Gang singing in Sanskrit; there's some of that sunshine pop flavor here. Spirit of Love is likely to get its spiritual fans bopping around the ashram instead of sitting in the lotus position with their eyes closed; just don't buy it if you're looking to go into a trance that doesn't involve dancing.