About me:
I'm playing Indian ragas on the sitar - an instrument producing a lot of overtones due to the special shape of its bridges and its resonating sympathetic strings.
The actual meaning of the word 'raga' (or 'raag', which is the original pronunciation in sanskrit) is 'that which colours the mind' - and in fact to me, playing a raga is like drawing a picture: In the alap, the basic melodic outline is sketched using the various hues of the Indian musical notes (swaras) with the shades of their constantly changing microtones (shrutis). Later on, faster strokes and brushes come into play filling the acoustic image with vibrant excitement.
Additional to Indian classical music I also do fusion projects with other musical styles, e.g. Jazz, Folk, Celtic, Ambient, Drum & Bass, western and middle Eastern classical, Pop, Rock etc.
Influences:
My Indian Teachers
in Benares:
Batuk Nath Mishra, Debasish Sanyal, Dr. J.N. Goswami,
Dr. Raj Bhan Singh (Gwalior Gharana)
in Calcutta:
Prof. Subroto Roy Chowdhury (Senia Gharana),
Pandit Manilal Nag (Bishnupur Gharana)
