1.2 billion people can’t be wrong…
Bassist/composer Shubh Saran mixes Southern Asian harmonics with synth styles on this recent album. There are some beautiful layers with guitar on “Terai 1911” and a tender mix of sax and ax during the lyrical “Remember To Come Home Soon”. Electronic pulses meet with Indian harmonies on “Enculture” and there’s a hip hop Bollywood beat with intricate piano on “Intra”. His bass creates soundscapes on “Ring Hunting” and traditions get plugged in with flute, effects and electronic bumps for “MOS” and “Mother Tongue Influence”. Hip Hindi.
Indian sitarist Shujaat Huasain Khan brings in Persian vocalist Katayoun Goudarzi along with shariz Mustafa on table and the flute-like ney treated by Shaho Andalibi on this collection of tradition meeting jazz. Gourdazi’s lovely nasal voice glider the tablas on “Wild” and gives sensuous syllables to “Stil Here”. Khan’s sitar is meditative on ‘ Tender” while Andalibi’s ney envelopes “Sweetest” and soars over the pulsating cadence of “One”. The team strolls like a desert caravan on “All I’ve Got Here” with everyone getting a c hance to stretch out and add to the myriad of complementing flavors.