Kolkata: Ravi Shankar`s latest album ‘The Living Room Sessions Part II’, which spans a wide range of Indian classical ragas, will be released towards the end of 2013.
The legendary sitarist was posthumously honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Grammys and also won in the World Music category for ‘The Living Room Sessions Part 1’ recently.
The Living Room happened after Ravi Shankar improvised seven different ragas on October, 2011 following long-time informal sessions at his living room with tabla accompanist Tanmoy Bose at his home in Encinitas, California.
Tanmoy, a long-time accompanist of Shankar, told PTI here, "It was pure Shankar, the pairing of deep musical experience and brilliant technique, performed with the energy and passion he brings to his live concerts."
The album has four tracks starting with Raga Malgunji, a meditative strain reflecting on the distance between the human and the supreme, to the lighter, lyrical Raga Khamaj and Raga Kedara.
The last track is Raga Satyajit, a spontaneous melodic raga dedicated to late film maestro and friend of Shankar, Satyajit Ray, the celebrated percussionist said.
The emotion in the sitar maestro`s masterly exposition is simply powerful, candid and personal, Tanmoy, the frontman of `Taaltantra`, an international fusion band, said.
"Living Room Sessions Part 1 is a revelation of the genius of Panditji. It seems like he is strumming the strings before us when we close our eyes," Tanmoy said.
The release of the second disc is scheduled for the autumn this year, where "the emotion in the sitarist`s intimate and masterly strokes as the duo exchange improvisational phrasings, manifests as in the first one, he said.
Shankar died in December at the age of 92, after failing to recover from surgery at a hospital in La Jolla, California, near San Diego. His family was at his bedside.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, February 19, 2013, 11:35
