PURBAYAN CHATTERJEE
Saath Saath (Believe)
The latest in a long, distinguished line of records for sitar player Purbayan Chatterjee, Saath Saath offers up seven extended ragas unified in their exploration of night following day.
The ‘day’ half of the record is a more tempered, mellow excursion, evoking visions of sunlight through net curtains as Chatterjee’s sitar offers encircling trills of notes around Rakesh Chaurasia’s hazy flute sound. The pace quickens with second track Yaman Drut as Chaurasia and Chatterjee exchange frantic solos over pointillist tabla playing bringing to mind the heady rush of mid-morning Indian markets.
Not a conventional Indian classical album, Chatterjee’s explorations share a sensibility with those jazz musicians who turned East for inspiration, Yusef Lateef in particular. Much like jazz, each piece of Saath Saath unfurls at its own pace (no track is shorter than 10 minutes) and for the listener, this offers the opportunity to bask in its glow that much longer. Deep listening indeed.
words ADAM JONES