New Age musician Parijat likes to keep his hands on all aspects of his music. When working on his first CD, Buddha Garden Parijat played all the instruments, did all the recording and even mastered the disc himself.

"With my upcoming album, I will do the same. It is a very interesting journey to give birth to an album. It is as if one has to use both sides of the brain at the same time sometimes," says Parijat. "It is an art, not to stand in the way. Like a Koan and a meditation."

Parijat uses the rarely used solid body nylon string guitars--his are from Gibson and Guild--but he also uses other unusual instruments.

"My Gu Zheng from China is definitely outside the norm, in Japan, the Koto is a similar instrument. The Gu Zheng is a bit bigger. You could call it also a chinese harp," says Parijat. "This instrument gets usually only used in classical chinese music. It is a beautiful instrument. On my Myspace page you can listen my piece "Blossom", where I play the Gu Zheng."

Parijat also uses the Jerry Jones electric sitar.

"It is playable like an electric guitar but with the eastern buzz. I used it on Buddha Garden and will use it on my next as well." says Parijat.

He also uses a Taylor acoustic.

"My Taylor 914 came with the new Taylor ES pickup system. I only read positive comments about it, but I did not like the sound, so I added a Fishman Piezo under the saddle and had a new hole screwed into the back for the plug," he says. "The guy in the shop who did it for me felt a little puzzled about it. But what to do. I use the Fishman 75 percent and ad from the ES system the rest. I am happy with the result."

On his wish list of new gear are a Boss Loop Station RC-50 and a Swiss solid body nylon string guitar from Rolf Spuler.

As far as his recording Parijat uses pretty sparse gear.

"All Instrument or mikes I plug into some pre-amps and into my Fireface 800 from RME and from there all goes into my Mac G5 Power PC, I use Cubase SX and a Gold Bundle from Waves. Thats about it," he says "In addition I use a Compressor and a Vitalizer from SPL and Aktiv Monitors from A.D.A.M. 'Plug & Play' is, what makes life the most easy for me. For the final Mastering I use some tools from a friend of mine, not much though. When I pick up an instrument and start playing, I call it always 'a little concert to the universe'. So, melodies, textures and compositions develop while playing."

Translating the studio experience live is easy for Parijat--His live set up is basically the same as his studio set up.

"Only, I use a sub mixer instead of the fireface and use a Ernie Ball Stereo Volume Pedal for controlling the Volume," he says. "I do prefer my studio monitors surrounding me, as monitors on stage. So I deliver only a Stereo line to the main PA and thats it."

Parijat is recording his second CD, which should be done by the end of the year. Look for it on Santa Fe-based New Earth Records.