Immersion

Alam Khan is the grandson of the legendary Allauddin Khan who was teacher to two of the most accomplished Indian musicians of the last century: Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan (Alam's father). Following in his father's footsteps, Khan is a master of the sarod, the unfretted 25-stringed North Indian classical instrument that produces deeply resonant tones and despite its origins in the Afghani rubab, creates a sound that is ideal for Indian classical ragas. On this album, he begins with ‘Raga Kaushi Kanara’, a somewhat heavy and sombre raga which is unfolded systematically, in keeping with the family style. But the high point of this disc has to be the rarely-heard ‘Raga Durgeshwari’, a deeply emotional raga invented by his grandfather and one that readily lends itself to a serious yet utterly tuneful treatment.

While Alam Khan displays a restrained virtuosity, he has been quoted as having said that virtuosity alone should not be the listeners’ focus and that it is more important to ‘be with’ the music, to be fully ‘immersed’ in it. The album, aptly named Immersion, concludes with an enchanting ‘Pilu Ragmala’, which touches on a number of other ragas and is played in the seven-beat rhythm cycle known as rupak.