Karen Salicath Jamali Announces First Full Vocal Album, OM Mare Shangri-la

August 30, 2026 Nadeem Mirani

Nine songs mark the composer’s debut as a vocalist and lyricist; Warner Music Group distributes the album worldwide on August 28, 2026

Listen to the Album here

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Composer, pianist, and singer-songwriter Karen Salicath Jamali releases her first full vocal album, OM Mare Shangri-la (“The Cosmic Ocean Paradise”), on August 28, 2026. Warner Music Group distributes the nine-track album worldwide. The label will submit the record for 2027 Grammy consideration.

OM Mare Shangri-la holds a specific distinction in Jamali’s catalog: it collects the first nine songs she has written as a vocalist. The album pairs her voice, lyrics, and acoustic guitar with the dream-received musical language she has built through piano composition for more than a decade. Across nine tracks, the record addresses love, unity, consciousness, time, freedom and —the remembering of who we are – where we came from – and the love there connects us all.

From Near-Death Experience to Music

In 2012, Jamali sustained a serious head injury and had a near-death experience that redirected her life. She spent three years recovering. During the experience, she describes leaving her body and encountering an immense consciousness — what she experienced as the universe, OM, God, or the Creator — accompanied by an angelic presence. She carried back a single understanding: we are not separate; we all are one. She also describes being shown that sound holds the planets in balance and that celestial beings communicate through sound.

After her recovery, Jamali began playing piano and composing, despite never having studied either discipline. Music arrived through dreams, often in the early morning, and developed over the following decade into an extensive body of dream-received piano work. Words followed the music: some songs arrived through dreams, others while Jamali sat with her acoustic guitar. She wrote them down and let them develop. Those songs became the nine tracks of OM Mare Shangri-la — the first time her voice, lyrics, and guitar entered the world she had expressed for years through piano alone.

“For me, OM Mare Shangri-la is not a departure from the music I have made before. It is another doorway into the same world — a world where sound, consciousness, love, art, dreams, and life are connected. The deepest understanding I have carried with me since 2012 is that we are all connected more deeply than we know, and only in love we exist. And we are deeply loved more than we ever can imagine.”

— Karen Salicath Jamali

About Karen Salicath Jamali

Karen Salicath Jamali is an American composer, pianist, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and visual artist, born in Denmark and now based in the United States. She holds Voting Member status at the Recording Academy. She began studying classical guitar at age eight and trained for roughly fifteen years under a teacher from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. She later earned a Master’s degree from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and built a visual-art career spanning more than three decades as a painter, sculptor, and photographer, with work exhibited internationally, including at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Jamali began composing after her 2012 near-death experience and recovery. She has written more than 2,500 original compositions, released nine albums and numerous singles, and performed her piano compositions as a soloist at Carnegie Hall eight times. Her music has generated more than 29 million streams and reached an international following of more than 142,000. Rolling Stone UK, EARMILK, and WAXMGZINE have covered her work. She calls the philosophy behind her music and visual art Quintessence Music — a practice built on dreams, intuition, stillness, consciousness, and the heart.

The Team Behind OM Mare Shangri-la

Aqdas Salicath Jamali, Recording Engineer — Karen’s son recorded the album and brought a pianist’s and photographer’s eye to the sessions, preserving the intimacy of the performances.

Maria Triana, Mastering Engineer — Triana spent approximately twenty years at Sony Music and has mastered work for Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Wayne Shorter, Sting, Donald Fagen, Britney Spears, Camila Cabello, Meghan Trainor, and Tate McRae.

Gary Gray, Producer and Mastering Engineer — The Los Angeles-based composer and producer has worked on projects connected to Disney, 20th Century Fox, Hollywood Records, A&E, EMI, and CBS, and has worked alongside Quincy Jones, Phil Ramone, Phil Collins, and Jermaine Jackson.

Austin Leeds, Mastering Engineer, “Seeds of God” — The DJ, producer, and engineer has released work through Bedrock, Spinnin’ Records, Ultra Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music, and has been recognized by Billboard and Rolling Stone.

Watch the Videos

“Only in Love We Are”: https://youtu.be/-M1GiFZ2x3I

“Seeds of God”: https://youtu.be/7km_LSHWHm8

“Mary’s Song”: https://youtu.be/KPwpyoxilwI

Pre-save and streaming links will be added ahead of the August 28 release.

Album at a Glance

Artist: Karen Salicath Jamali

Album: OM Mare Shangri-la

Translation: The Cosmic Sound of the Ocean Paradise

Release Date: August 28, 2026

Format: First full vocal album, 9 songs

Distribution: Warner Music Group, worldwide