All proceeds from this release will benefit Doctors Without Borders. Thank you for your support!
This is a ḳhyāl, a word that suggests dreams, visions, and active imagination. It is a form of raga music that lends itself to flexible, extended performance; no two performances, even of the same songs, are the same.
The recording begins wordlessly, with a brief, improvised alap that traces the contours of the raga at hand: Puriya. Puriya evokes the first half of deep night, when stars and planets shine brightly in the full blackness of the sky. It is well suited for intense devotion and yearning.
After the alap come three extended, largely improvised songs, each of which explores a different aspect of Puriya, with a short poetic fragment.
::: 'Sughara Banā' (सुघर बना), the "big khyāl," which describes a wedding and invokes the North Star (Dhruv-Tārā.)
::: 'Mad ke bhare nainā' (मद के भरे नैना), the "small khyāl," composed by Balwantrai Bhatt "Bhavaranga," which describes the heady liquor flowing in the eyes of the Beloved.
::: 'Na dre dre dīm' (ना द्रे द्रे दीम), a tarānā with rhythmic vocables of indeterminate (or perhaps secret) meaning.
The art of khyal consists in elaborating each composition, cycle after cyle, deepening the feeling of the raga, playing with metric constraints, building intensity, drawing out latent meanings in the poetry. As for practices of listening, the heart is the consummate auditory organ.
The melodic color of the piece is deepened by Suhail Yusuf Khan's exquisite sārangi accompaniment. The metrical cycles (each of which can be reckoned in 16 counts, but vary widely in groove and feel) are brilliantly adorned by Abhinav Sharma's tabla accompaniment. Matt Rahaim has been trained in the Gwalior lineage for the last 25 years. His guru is Laxman Krishnarao Pandit.
credits
released October 6, 2023
सुघर बना ।। विलंबित तिलवाड़ा
मद के भरे नैना ।। मध्यलय तीनताल
ना द्रे द्रे दीम तनन देरेना ।। द्रुत तीनताल
Rag Puriya:
Vocal – Matt Rahaim
Tabla – Abhinav Sharma
Sarangi – Suhail Yusuf Khan
मद के भरे नैना composed by Balwant Rai Bhatt
Matt Rahaim is a shagird of Laxman Krishna Rao Pandit
the composition, the artist, the history - every part of this music earns so much respect and deserve recognition and support - I really enjoy every moment to listen to this - every time. THANK YOU osofeliz
An exercise in finding the balance between the beauty and the broken, the latest from ’t Geruis wanders gentle soundscapes. Bandcamp New & Notable May 24, 2021