San Francisco singer-songwriter Luke Sweeney's fourth studio album, RISHI, is not just one more release at all. It is the great release of his career so far due to the transcendental meaning it holds and the symbolic message it contains. Inspired by the traumatic birth and unexpected death of his infant daughter in 2018, this eleven-track album was mostly written in India, where Sweeney's family made a return trip to deliver Rishi's ashes to the Ganges. Having worked on it for years, he is now finally ready to share it with his followers.
“It was Rishi's dancing atop my heart that wouldn't let me return to sleep until I committed to traveling to the place of her namesake of her: Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India. This was in the spring of 2017,” says the artist and author of singles such as Princess of the Pearl Palace or Natural Force. It was then that the forces of nature, even a supernatural power, appeared on the scene and all the music from India started rushing back to him. “Our time in these flawed holy cities was devoted to healing and understanding the bigger picture-the why and the how,” he adds when asked about an experience that would change his life forever.

RISHI, his new album, has him still searching, still hurting, but fully convinced of the cosmic connection and deeper purpose that he shares not only with his daughter but with every energetic being. He is now determined to share this project with all of us. “I'm sure people will have their own references for what these songs sound like or remind them of, but for me - it comes from a place we all belong, but haven't arrived at yet.” From Rishi to Letter To Rishikesh, the eleven tracks that we find in this new project invite us to embark on a journey full of emotion and sensory nuances.