MUMBAI: After seven decades of a brilliant career Lata Mangeshkar has decided to create music that inspires her, by officially launching her own music label, LM Music. Mangeshkar alongwith Pandit Jasraj, Neeta Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan launched the record label on 13 January in Mumbai.
Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar in a statement stated, “With the changes taking place in the music scenario, and with the focus on melody gradually fading away, I have reduced work in films, despite continuing to receive frequent requests to embellish significant films with my voice. All through my glorious career, I wished to do more non film recordings , but these were limited to special projects from time to time, due to my extremely busy schedules and film commitments. In recent years, the music industry has faced some challenges and thus existing music labels have been less forthcoming in releasing non-film albums. The few that were made, faced many restrictions of content, disparate views on market acceptability , lack of promotion , awareness and thus availability.”
Bollywood celebrities like Sridevi, Boney Kapoor, Madhur Bhandarkar, Alka Yagnik and Mahalakshmi Iyer were among those were present.
She further added, “LM Music is our foray into a venture that will give us unfettered creativity and satisfaction by producing albums that I believe in. We will create content that will satisfy us to release albums that will inspire listeners to embrace melodic music, as they always did in the past.”
Bachchan wished all the luck to the new label. "I am too small in front of all the dignitaries present here.... best wishes to LM MUSIC and I wish the company also becomes a precious stone like Lata," he said.
L M Music chief executive officer Mayuresh Pai said, “LM Music will release albums featuring Lata Mangeshkar herself, as well as talent that she will handpick personally. LM MUSIC will encourage young talent that needs an outlet for its creativity including budding artistes, who Lata Mangeshkar feels have the potential to maintain the high standards set by our legends.”
Jasraj said that there was no one who could match Lata`s contribution to the field of music. "There is no one today who has contributed so much to music....she is the eight wonder of the world," he said.
While the launch, they released six new albums which are a mix of Sufi & Spirituality. ‘Siddhartha’ is an album based on Gautam Buddha where Lata Mangeshkar has sung Buddham Sharanam Gacchami for the first time. The album has lyrics and compositions by Rajesh Dhabre. The other songs have voices rendered by Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Anup Jalota, Suresh Vadkar, Dr. Bhavana Rajesh, and Rajesh Dhabare. ‘Har Har Mahadeo’ has Lata and Shankar Mahadevan sing together for the first time on Lord Shiva (Mahadev) songs. ‘Shree Swami Samarth Mahamantra’ has music by Mayuresh Pai, lyrics by Chandrashekhar Sanekar and music arranged by Bhavdeep Jaipurwale. Others albums are ‘Rang Swaranche’, sufi album ‘Kabir’ sung by Suresh Wadkar and introduction by Amitabh Bachchan and a children album titled ‘Sachin Mi Honar’.