Rasa Duende
Improvisations
ABC Music / Universal
At first glance,
you’d perhaps not think traditional Hindustani music and Flamenco had any
business being in the same place, such are their vast physical and cultural
distances from one another.
Rasa Duende will
prove you wrong. A collaboration between renowned tabla player Bobby Singh,
Sarod player Adrian McNeil and Flamenco guitarist Damien Wright, Improvisations is a stunning look at
what can happen when two unlikely bedfellows mesh perfectly, thanks to some
truly inspired playing.
A genuine melding
of sounds and cultures, Improvisations,
all instrumental, builds from Singh’s seemingly simple (yet metronomic)
rhythms, and takes flight, the deep, weighty Sarod sound complimenting the fluttering
Flamenco guitar work to a tee.
‘Ajnabi’ takes a
sparse, darker road, McNeil seeming to just noodle away over a constant rhythm.
Opener ‘Bhairenco’ begins slowly before building into a churning groove,
utilising all players to their utmost potential. And the almost twelve minute
long ‘Ektaal Por Bulerias’ picks up speed as it goes, McNeil and Wright almost
battling for stringed supremacy by the end. A truly great release from this
talented trio, hopefully just a beginning.
4/5
Samuel J. Fell
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