Derek Bell (musician) - Eastern Religions

Eastern Religions

From the early 1960s Bell was a friend of Swami Kriyananda, also known as J. Donald Walters (Walters is also an avid composer of music for the Irish harp). Bell and some associates visited Kriyananda at his spiritual centre in Ananda village in Nevada City, California. Bell wrote a preface to an edition of Kriyananda's book Art As a Hidden Message. He writes, "After reading it, I decided to get in touch with him... I also visited Ananda several times, the beautiful village Kriyananda himself founded in 1968... I offered to record some of Kriyananda's music". His first album the "Mystic Harp" with Kriyananda was well reviewed by the New York times - "This is a lovely, light album full of charm and innocence The Mystic Harp will take you to places that stretch from the innocence of childhood to the mystery and otherworldliness of the spiritual." His final album was also with Kriyananda, the Mystic Harp vol II, a collection of compositions in a new age style, for solo harp, quite different from the traditional and classical compositions for which he was otherwise known. In August 2002, only weeks before his death, Bell visited Kriyananda. Although Bell was born a Protestant, he became a Buddhist later in life.