Our Story
Vasudev and Eva first met at the Mundekulla festival in Skåne in 2003. Someone suggested they connect, sensing they had much in common. Music and devotion brought them together — they discovered they worked on the same frequency.
In 2004, they decided to create a kirtan album together. 108 Names was recorded and mixed by Eva’s son, Rishi, in a small apartment close to Ödeshög, Sweden. Vasudev had driven from Gothenburg in his old Volkswagen Jetta. They had almost no budget, but they had something more valuable: heart and community. Members of the local Hare Krishna community — past and present — gathered to join them, giving the recordings a vibrant, live feeling.
Today, 108 Names has been discovered by millions of listeners worldwide, with over 3 million plays on Spotify. Two decades later, Vasudev and Eva are reuniting to share their love of kirtan at this summer retreat.
Vasudev
Vasudev was given his name by the Indian guru Swami Shyam in 1990. Since then, he has been gathering people in sacred circles to chant, dance, meditate and sing in praise of life.
A dedicated student of Eastern philosophy and spiritual practice, his repertoire includes traditional bhajans and devotional songs, along with his original melodies and reggae hits. His catalogue of music has been discovered by millions of listeners around the world.
Vasudev started meditating in 1987 at the age of 17. The following year he met his teacher Swami Shyam, and after finishing high school, he went to the ashram in the Himalayas to study with him.
His path has been enriched by many teachers and influences: Norwegian wise woman Vigdis Garbarek, the Osho-inspired community at Ängsbacka in Sweden, Rainbow Gatherings, Ramesh Balsekar in Mumbai, Chandra Lacombe, and the teachings of Alan Watts, Eckhart Tolle, and Nisargadatta Maharaj. “I am very grateful to all my teachers as I walk my own path.”
Growing up in Oslo, Norway, Vasudev has since made the world his home — especially India, Sweden, Brazil, and Bali, Indonesia. He shares kirtan wherever he goes. Since moving to Bali in 2012, he has been leading weekly kirtans, and in the summers he travels to Norway, Sweden, and other European countries where he is invited to play.
Eva Cederblad/Radha Kumari
Eva was born in Stockholm in 1963. Her grandmother, who was Sami, used to sing to her when she was very young. Eva loved her songs about nature and stories about the unexplainable.
At age 9, she was accepted to Adolf-Fredrik’s music school, where she trained classically for six years. Much of the repertoire carried spiritual messages, and singing in Stockholm’s beautiful churches felt powerful and safe. Yet something was missing.
At 15, Eva discovered what she had been searching for. She met Krishna Premi Devi, who sat playing harmonium and singing Vedic mantras. The moment Eva joined in, she felt something shift inside — a sense of coming home, a freedom and inner cleansing she had never experienced before.
Krishna Premi became her teacher and role model, teaching her harmonium, mridanga, and kartals. Eva would sit for hours singing beautiful Sanskrit songs from the Bhakti tradition — the path of love and devotion.
Since then, Eva has actively lived with these mantras, singing them, meditating them, embodying them. Today she travels leading kirtan and voice activation workshops and retreats. In recent years, she has also begun exploring her Sami heritage, finding that the joik describes nature in a way that touches her heart deeply.
“It is so wonderful to sing together with others and experience borderless community. Looking forward to singing with you!”
In love, Eva/Radha Kumari