The first show of the month is less doctrinaire.

Set #1 - 8:00am - 9:30am

1. Ravi Shankar: Transmigration Macabre (1973)
Ravi Shankar - sitar
C-Five Records, C5CD 596
29:32
(Score by Ravi Shankar for film in the cat-wife genre such as favoured by Edgar Allan Poe. Disorienting psychedelic ride, though Shankar is on record as rejecting the expansion of consciousness via pharmaceuticals. For an insight into Shankar's composing process see the scoring session included as an extra on the BBC's Alice in Wonderland DVD. I get more hits from that psychedelic graphic than all other search terms combined.)

2. John Tavener: Lalishri (2006)
Nicola Benedetti - violin, Andrew Litton - conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Deutsche Grammophon, 476 619-8
34:36

3. Michael Nyman, Rajan Misra & Sajan Misra: Three Ways of Describing Rain (2002)
Rajan Misra & Sajan Misra - voice, Michael Nyman - conductor, Michael Nyman Band
Sangam: Michael Nyman Meets Indian Masters
Warner Classics, 49551
28:19

Set #2 - 9:30am - 11:00am

4. Kaminari: Triangle (2003)
Kaminari: Yoshito Yamano - sitar, guitar, bass, synthesizer, drum patterns & percussion; Chie Yamano - didjeridoo, voice
Kaminari, n.n.
59:15
(A whole hour of ambient sitar and didjeridoo duo: You can do dat on da college radio.)

5. Ragamalika (Medley of Ragas)
Ananda - voice, Jana Starling - clarinet, K. S. Mani - violin, Anand Bala - mrdangam [double-sided drum]
Ananda: Treasures
Tantra, TSMV9701
15:07
(Our weekly raga guide, beginning with South Indian Shankarabharanam, which happens to share its interval structure with the Western major scale. N.B Ananda starts singing on the third degree of the scale.

Note how the mood changes from carefree to tense round about 2:24 as D and B are flattened and E and A jettisoned, turning the composition into the pentatonic ragam Revathi (C Db F G Bb). Fortunately for us Ananda sings the note names: Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa (same as Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do), which facilitates following along.

At 4:35-ish the mood brightens thanks to the sudden introduction of a major 3rd above tonic C. It's the pentatonic ragam Valachi, C E G A Bb (called Kalavati in North India). Do you recognize that? It's your typical boogie woogie bass line:









Then at 6:50-ish....)