Essence of Raga Tala

Here tabla maestro Kuljit Bhamra has put together a rather eclectic but very enjoyable selection of tracks, many which he has written himself, to give us a broad selection of ragas. Although the disc runs to a generous 78 minutes, each track is relatively short and so the differences between each of the ragas can easily be heard, something I thought was a nice touch.

The star of the show is the ‘multi-tabla set,’ which he created to enable the playing of all the notes of a raga. This turns out to be no mere novelty, but is hauntingly beautiful and heard to great advantage on ‘Dhun in Raga Patdeep – Sitar & Tabla’ and also on the two ‘Tabla Modale’ tracks. The other excellent musicians who contribute to the disc should also be given their due. Among others, the violinist Rohan Roy deserves particular praise for his rendition of ‘Raga Mishra Nat Bahirav – Violin’, a delicate solo performance that holds your attention all the way to the end, and I was also very impressed by guitarist Siddhart Singh on ‘Dhun in Raga Vrindavani Sarang – Acoustic Guitar & Tabla’. I was, perhaps, less convinced by the sound of the analog Yamaha CS01 on ‘Raga Sindhu Bhairavi – Synthesizer’ as it seemed to lack the finesse of the playing elsewhere, but it does add an element of nostalgia for those who can remember experimenting with the instrument back in the 1980s.