After releasing his first music album Unbounded – Abaad which featured legendary musicians like Bela Fleck and Ustad Zakir Hussain, Indian sitar player and composer Purbayan Chatterjee has just released a new album Saath Saath with flutist and lifelong friend, Rakesh Chaurasia.
The album features seven ragas for morning and night, with the first half of the album dedicated to the more soothing ragas for the mornings — Lalit, which is the essence of a meditative morning — and languorous afternoons, like in Madhuvanti. The second half of the album explores the romance and emotions of dusk and night through Yaman Madhya Laya and Yaman Drut.
Co-written with flutist Rakesh Chaurasia — nephew of the legendary flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia — the record draws inspiration from the original spirit of the raga tradition and presents a beautiful aural experience.
While Saath Saath sticks closest to the spirit and traditions of the ragas in style and sound, it’s also an evolution from Purbayan’s progressive take-on Indian classical music. This approach, the musician says began in earnest after a moment of epiphany on one of his many trips to California during the 1990s when he’d make the musical pilgrimage and immerse himself at the Ali Akbar College of Music, founded by the great sarod master, Ustad Ali Akbar.