Music For Hope
Zoho, 2022
8/10
The sarod playing family of Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash are in the company of the Chinese pipa soloist Wu Man and the percussionist Shane Shanahan for these cultured, diverse and harmonic 5 pieces.
“Stream Of Love” starts the listen with the pipa and a pair of sarods interacting with much beauty and warmth, where improvisations of Indian and Chinese yield slow rhythms, and “Rhythm Of Life” follows with the drums accompanying the fluid Raga Durga that meshes the strings with percussive sounds.
“Beyond Borders” arrives at the halfway point, and it has the sarod and pipa working in the South Indian Raga Vachaspati, where a seven-note scale is utilized with a fascinating precision, while “Maya” brings back the drums for an even more exploratory, rhythmic expanse of Raga Vachaspati.
“Of Tradition And Heritage”, the best track, exits the listen, and it presents feral harmonies and Raga Zila Kafi sounds which uses sharpened or flattened versions of notes via a seven-note scale.
Both Shanahan and Wu Man are founding members of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad project, and together with the sarod masters they help create a worldly, distinctly harmonic and very fascinating body of work.
Travels well with: Katayoun Goudarzi/Shujaat Husain Khan- This Pale; Sarah Aroeste- Monastir