Vantzou, Harrison, Bennett * Michael Begg
Ragas in just intonation performed by Christina Vantzou, Michael Harrison and John Also Bennett — Michael Begg’s attempt to realize ‘something that refused to play’.
Tag: raga
London Docks – Tangaroa
London Docks is the alias Nikita Sorokin uses for his solo work.
He’s not from London, but from Los Angeles.
Also a member of Insects vs. Robots – but don’t let that count as an introduction, because the music he presents as London Docks is quite different from that of this particular “psychotropicturesque quasi-nomadic music tribe”.
“Tangaróa“ is a collection of tracks merging Nikita Sorokin‘s solo violin improvisations with “fields recordings and electronica into sonic dreamscapes that are inspired as much by science fiction and mythology as they are by musical ideas”.
Paul Sharma – Safar
Paul Sharma is a british painter and musician who was raised in India.
Regular Ambientblog.net visitors and podcast subscribers will probably remember the exclusive tracks he presented earlier this year: the electronic Raga tracks called “Embers” (vocal and instrumental version)
His new EP, called Safar (meaning ‘Journey’ in the Urdu language) is now presented on the Test Tube netlabel.
Paul Sharma – Embers
Paul Sharma‘s Embers is a beautiful electronic composition based on the Indian midnight raga Malkauns, and thus is very suitable for midnight listening (The Raga Guide indicates Late Night: 12 – 3).
“Malkauns is a serious, meditative raga, and is developed mostly in the lower octave (mandra saptak) and in a slow tempo (vilambit laya).”
(Wikipedia)
On this version the vocals are more in the middle octave as that suits Rajesh’s voice, but there are instruments at the lower (and sub-lower) to compensate. The vocal piece starts with an alap (free or rhythmless tempo) and then a slow tempo vocal.
“It is a majestic and somewhat introverted pentatonic raga, which seems to have undergone quite a transformation over the centuries. Superstitious musicians describe it as a raga with supernatural powers, and some believe that it can attract evil spirits.”
(The Raga Guide)