Awakening: The Stillness Within Chad Lawson

• 1 The Silence Before Dawn 08:51
• 2 Bhairav Rising 07:13
• 3 Still Waters 12:30
• 4 Shakti Echoes 06:38
• 5 Awakening: Prayer in Aether 05:35
• 6 The Fifth Breath 04:44
• 7 Devi Within 08:06
• 8 Sacred Memory 06:24
• 9 Awakening: The Stillness Within 10:39
• Total Runtime 01:10:40

Info for Awakening: The Stillness Within

Awakening: The Stillness Within is a landmark cross-cultural release by American pianist and composer Chad Lawson, issued on May 8, 2026 through Vedam Records — Universal Music Group India's wellness-focused imprint — in co-release with Decca Records US. The album brings together Lawson's signature language of meditative, minimalist piano and the rich sonic universe of Indian classical music.

The collaborators are among the finest voices in their traditions. Purbayan Chatterjee is a sitar virtuoso of the Senia Maihar Gharana known for fusing Indian classical heritage with contemporary world music forms. Rasika Shekar is an internationally acclaimed bansuri flautist, vocalist, and composer — a Grammy-credited artist and winner of the Indian Independent Music Award for Best Instrumental Composition (2022). The album's first single, "Still Waters," was shaped through deep improvisation: two artists from entirely different musical worlds discovering a shared emotional vocabulary in real time, without pre-planning or overthinking.

Vedam Records was built on the philosophy of delivering authentic wellness music rooted in the Indian Vedic tradition, spanning yoga, meditation, focus, sleep, and chakra balancing. Awakening: The Stillness Within sits at the heart of that mission — a work conceived not as performance, but as an invitation to pause, breathe, and inhabit stillness. It is Lawson's most ambitious intercultural statement to date, and one of the most significant East-West piano collaborations of 2026.

Chad Lawson,piano
Rasika Shekhar, flute

Chad Lawson
is just about the polar opposite of every other solo pianist out there. He has toured the world with Julio Iglesias, is an official Steinway performing artist, recipient of “Album of the Year” on Whisperings Solo Piano Radio and has scored several films.

Earlier, Lawson’s trio recorded two wildly-successful albums for Summit Records. Dear Dorothy; the Oz Sessions—brought music from the Wizard of Oz to the national jazz charts. The CD was featured in Starbucks, showed up in Dawson’s Creek, and the trio even toured Japan. Unforeseen, their second album, jumped to #8 on the national jazz charts, and included songs by the Police, Soundgarden, and the Beatles. However, all these successes were a blur, leading up to one night on tour in Spain with Iglesias—in yet another sold-out 10,000 seat venue. It was here that Lawson suddenly felt absolutely alone on stage and said, “It’s time to do my own thing again.”

Imagine standing in the middle of NYC, engulfed by all its energy. That same pulse stems from Lawson’s music, in a more slow-burn sorta way. That’s the kind of music Lawson writes: with listening—real listening—in mind. Listeners get the feeling they’re participating in a musical conversation. That’s because—unlike just about every other solo pianist out there—Lawson’s music has a strong organic, improvisatory element to it. Chad Lawson is sort of like George Winston, but the audience Lawson’s going for probably won’t get that reference anyway. (Lawson has always made a habit of bringing jazz to new audiences, as if you couldn’t tell by his credits.)

All Lawson’s songs, in fact, give you the chance to hear the music, and simply exhale, to breathe. His music affords the time that most of us never take in the day to rest our mind—as if to say, things can be put on pause—even for just a few moments.

This album contains no booklet.