Celtic Ragas (Audio CD)

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Chance meeting

The chance meeting between the master and the disciple is the door to a dancing celebrating life. It was a chance meeting between Jamie and myself that led to the creation of this piece life for a dance meditation.

The Mists of Ruantallain

The west coasts of the Hebridean Islands of Scotland are among the last places in Europe where it is still possible to be alone for days with the ocean the seabirds and an empty sky.

At the edge of the Known world

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy. I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty everyday and if you can source your life on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon. Yes! Oriah Mountain Dreamer Dedicated to Sadhu.

Mere Hamsafar

In Urdu the language of the Sufi mystics of India Mere Hamsafar means Fellow traveler i.e. one who is on the same spiritual path as myself. Jamie dedicates this song to Sarita.

Tara

A slip jig in 9/8 time. The bard’s ancient Ireland composed their poems in the holy capital Tara the Mahayana Buddhists of India and Tibet sing hymns in praise of the goddess Tara Protectors of the dharma and in both Hindi and Hebrew Tara means star The Goddess

This track based on Raga Durga in honour of the Indian goddess of the same time. The tripe faced moon goddess worshipped by the ancient Celts is still widely worshipped in India today-in her virginal new moon aspect as Sati in her nubile full moon aspect as Durga and in her terrifying aspect of the moonless nights as Kali.

Wandering way

It is impossible to play and sarod today without acknowledging the deepest debt to Ali Akbar Khan. His recordings are like mines one can return to them again and again and pull out gems lines which for him are just part of his improvisational flow but which looked at individually are things of utter loveliness.

A Gypsy Tale

In many old Irish stories the devil loves to turn up unexpectedly gathering and disguised as a fiddler play until all present are in a trance. Wandering out of India in the middle ages the gypsics brought their music westwards collecting Arabic influence along the way they helped to create a host of folk styles in Europe including flamenco.

Dorset

Join us walking through the lush green hills of Dorset western England where an enchanted mist rises every morning and enshrouds the landscape again each evening where hobbit holes and wood fairies may be seen if one looks with the right eyes.

All tracks composed by Chinmaya Dunster and Vidroha Jamie except Dorset (Jamie) and At the edge of the known world and tara

Produced by Chinmaya
engineered and mixed (worldsound studio Humburg)

Musicians
Chinmaya – Sarod guitar on at the edge of the known world and Tara
Jamie – Guitars
Manish Vyas – Tablas
Jerry Demos – Drums
Sangit Om – Bamboo Flute on Mists of Ruantallain
Freidmar Hitzar – Violin
Don V. Lax – Violin on Tara
Naman – Trumpet
Douglas White – Bass
Henrik Gumoes – Hand percussion
Shastro – hand percussion on at the edge of the know world

The Atlantic Coastal Lands of Europe are today the last refuge of the Celtic Peoples who arriving from a prehistoric homeland somewhere in central Asia once populated much of Europe. It was in this region that I grew up in the sixties and early seventies and developed a sensitivity to the music of their modern day descendants their use of the drone and pentatonic scales their fondness for elaborating melody rather than harmony their passion of the art of improvisation and life performance.

Those were the days of the folk revival spearheaded by the chieftans, Fairport convention and alain stivel. At the same time the incredible string band were healing east for India and coming back laden with exotic instruments to play at their concerts while the beatles within you without you could be heard on every street corner. So a vague connection between Indian music and the folk music of my on whom home was not difficult to sense.

But it took a meeting the American folk rock guitarist Jamies in pune in 1989 before the music you hear on this CD could begin to be born. During the intervening years I had devoted myself to sarod an exclusively melodic instrument while Jamie was coming form a background of harmotic accompaniment (the Celts had influenced his music too through Irish and Scottish contribution to country and bheegrass music). The resulting blend of his chords on guitar with my melodies on sarod has developed over the past few years of playing together in concerts meditation and healing groups all over the world and culminated in this CD

It feels like a musical love after for us to play this music together an intimate conversation between two old friends. The ancient Hindus and Celts may have felt the same way if every they connected on their wanderings out of central Asia – one headed east the other to the farthest west.

“It was at an all night concert in Delhi in 1979 that I first heard and fell instantly in love with the sarod”

At the same time the parallels between the Celtic folk music I grew up with in Europe and the classical music of India suddenly hit me like a revelation. In that moment in a park in Delhi the connection was made and Celtic Raga Conceived.