ANCIENT MUSIC, NEW SPIRIT

FAITH has found expression through music and the arts in all the great world religions. For Sandy Hoover, being a Baha'i has led her to a fascination with native American music, and two hit albums with the dance band, Lunar Drive. The band's first album, "Here at Black Mesa, Arizona", was released in 1996 and reached the top five of the World Music charts. On the strength of that album, the band performed at Womad Festivals in Australia and New Zealand in 1997, and toured Britain and Belgium the following year. In 1999, Lunar Drive released "All Together Here" for Beggars Banquet Records in the United States, the label best known for Natacha Atlas and Basement Jaxx, and the prestigious Real World label has expressed interest in signing the band for a third album. It's a long way from the small cowboy town in Colorado, where Sandy grew up.

"I think being a Baha'i has always opened up my world and created the urge to meet all sorts of people," she says.

"I first encountered Indian music when I was 18; I spent about nine months living on the Southern Ute reservation in Colorado, and travelling across other reservations in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico," she says.

"Native American music was always in the background - but gradually I started really listening to it, and realised it was full of amazing melodies and incredible rhythms. It's a musical tradition that's developed entirely independently of the European tradition, so there's a very different aesthetic to it."

Sandy moved to London in the early 1990s, and began incorporating Native American melodies into the music she wrote for Lunar Drive.

Today, the band's lineup consists of Sandy, Reuben Fasthorse, Ray Cantill, Ed Walksnice and Cindy Busher. Collectively they represent three native American tribes, African American and European American backgrounds. The members are from the Baha'i and Christian faiths.

Achieving a balance between faith and artistic honesty represents a tremendous challenge for musicians, Sandy says.

"Baha'u'llah emphasised the individual's search for truth. He said we're not meant to think with another's brain, nor hear with another's ear. This is a very important point both spiritually and artistically," she says.

"To me, the power of music is its ability to communicate something as an individual, on a level where words alone are inadequate. Being open to spiritual inspiration propels you towards expressing that individuality through the music."