Nadaka, Indian guitarist

Rain Tree Rec.

Nadaka & Ganesh : Straight to your heart (IND,199?)***°'

This is a cooperation of Nadaka (-with "Nada" meaning "origin of sound" and "ka", "the one who carries it within"-), a Canadian born Indian guitarist (playing a modified guitar with scalloped movable frets specially adapted for Indian music), with violin player Ganesh, (playing seemingly an Indian fusion style), together with Vikku and his son Chella, Indian percussion (ghatam & kanjira), with the cooperation of Bernard Pagagnotti, fretless bass, Sydney Thiam, percussion and Paco Sery, sanza.

Moving perfectly from one theme to another, with a few environmental sounds, we hear a very nice and original fusion style deeply rooted in Indian classical music, and with a portion of a jazzy improvisation that keeps its roots within an "Indian" sound, or what sounds at least like a more typical Indian way of an adaptation of a fusion style. Partly the guitar style might be inspired by playing Indian styles in western scales for the guitar. On the first 6 tracks the violin leads often, beautifully, with a harmonic group accompaniment. On the seventh track and the following tracks we hear a guitar solo fusing improvisation and a clearer view on Nadaka's guitar technique itself, with further on, beside the Indian violin improvisations, also the fine adaptation of the fretless bass. After the thirteenth track some singing is integrated, which comes across at first in a South Indian ? way, with then some more exotic use of percussion, crossing in style the Indian sea towards Africa, creating a different and rich fusion, finally resulting in a fine blend that still sounds Indian, but which crosses also beyond any obvious expression of it, with an accessible new sound. Most of the album is a kind of dialogue between the violin and guitar style interpretations.

PS. Nadaka's guitar is modified to sound more like the veena.

Audio : "Gamapa", "Dakshina Laya", "Straight to your Heart","In an Indian Way"

Rain Tree Rec. Nadaka : The Lotus Trilogy meditations- (IND,)***°' /

Meditation 1, the lotus of the quiet mind, ***° (=ex)

Reading the booklet notes it's clear to me this series is made with some philosophic depth over what mediation means. There's no emphasis on the inner or outer world, or on a specific "higher" spiritual level, no western need for relaxation therapy as compensation for a much too much busy life, but a realistic goal for depth in sounds, for a vivid peace, not coming forth from what is only associated with it, by a desperate need for it, but as a musical experience and as a translation into a musically creative and here personal form.

The musical expression on this CD is sparse and often accurate, sometimes very original and powerful within its acurate simplicity. We hear a mantra being sung, on "Gayatri (Part One)", with accompaniment of anatar harp & tampura (= Indian drone instrument that looks a bit like a standing up sitar), followed by a beautiful (morning) raga played on the sarod (by Debi Gosh) :

"Bayragi (Part One)/(Part 2)". This instrument, sounds at least in this case a bit like a kind of sliding string guitar, with comparable effects as coming forth from a sitar, here with more to-the-basic-essence notes, ever moving, without resonance but with vibrant intervals of silence. On this "rhythm of silence intervals", this is followed by falling drops of water originally combined with the sound of the bamboo anklung, welding perfectly together : "Bamboo talk". Chimes come in, combined with bird sounds and water : "Peace of Mind". The bansuri flute, played by Bryce Grinlington, followed hereafter sounds on its appearance like a shell horn coming in, reaching far distances over the same wate : "Sacred Grove". Although I don't think this was necessary, these water sounds don't go away, and the improvisation is rather long in repeating its theme. Other bird sounds come in now, and originally played earthly drums and handpercussion on a wooden block (?) give the impression of a quiet forest : "Calling". Then the Gayatri mantra is repeated, with vocal arrangements, tampura, & anatar harp. And the resonating "om" like vibration repeats itself like an echo on the last track, moving the listener quietly away from this experience : "Gayatri (part 2)" & "Om".

This meditation can be seen as a description of a natural area to meditate in.

The second CD seems to go further and deeper into the matter of meditation purposes itself. :

Meditation 2, the lotus of the silent deep, ***°'

It's always impressive hearing Tibetan monks sing. (here : the choir of the Ganden Shartse Monastery) This is the first time their singing seems to have be used live and not just as an edited arrangement (used afterwards for different approaches and just as a big selling point). The bass gongs played by Nadaka make the sound even more vibrant, with a dark underground as if describing a mountain that growls and inhibits these haunting sounds : "The Soul's Voyage". The sound creations coming forth by experimenting with such gongs in the next track, "Into the deep", is described by Nadaka himself as "taming the mythical beast" from within the hells of fires. We seem to be inside a mountain, describing a world of lava, which is still quiet as a deep stream, but dangerous and with flaming unexpected heatwaves. Until here the whole concept sounds highly original. From the third track onwards, starting with "The forgotten passage", also some electric guitar chords are being used and combined with the deep sounds of the gong, giving the abstract sounds a new human touch, as a more open passage towards some human aspect. Nadaka sings over it with a deep voice. This combination reminds me very much of the opening of "Tantric Songs" from Popol Vuh, one of my favourite meditative records. "A drift in void" following thereafter is played by electric guitar only, with pulsing long echoes, and small (guitar ?) sounds recalling deep sea fishes a bit like whales. In its simplicity, this could either work or not, but it still works vibrantly and powerfully. On "The Guiding Spirit" some ghatam (Indian percussion) is added with the still moving and repetitive electric guitar. This percussion seems to direct towards a certain breakpoint, with a brooding tension, and with rhythms leading until the guitar vibrates along with it, but then the rhythms follow along with the original repetition, it becomes sleep-like, and very peaceful. Although the next track is called "No return", some spiritual lack of liberated transformation leaves us of course with the same guitar chords being repeated. The gongs and guitars vibrate further together, a repetition which would not necessarily have to return itself but then it suddenly disappears. Remaining in the last track, "Through the light", are "Tibetan" singing bowls only. Such bowls have tremendous and impressive vibrations, often used carelessly for curing, meditations and even sound massages. I'm not sure how much Nadaka knows about the 'true' use and playing of these bowls, but I think he at least tries to discover inner lying sounds with a musician's curiosity, and possibly with some tension of concentration coming into the sounds themselves, maybe nothing more. When used with a musical ear towards it, nothing much can go wrong with such devices. Still within all its mighty power as an instrument, expressing them without much directing vision, can also become another expression of another slightly passing moment. Besides that the instrument itself has a nice sound, I'm not sure how far this last track explores. I cannot see any boundaries left. It can be, like on the first CD, a track to take a distance from its concept, leaving nothing else but empty space, a condition for fulfilment ?

Where the first meditation CD might describe a condition for meditation, the second CD goes deeper into a subconscious inner level, the third CD might be a meditation on a more conscious, human level. I've reviewed this item a week later :

Meditation 3 : the Lotus of the open heart, ****

This CD is a fine example of an Indian kind of meditative music. "Cloud of Mercy" uses separately, guitar and anantar harp combined with violin or Indian female vocals and some second vocal with sparse percussion, an adaptation of an ancient Sufi poem in Tamil language. Its 14 minutes finishes almost before one notices. "The valley" is played with steel drum in a very quietly, in a thumb piano like way, combined with flute. Together this works very meditatively and is relaxing, in an honest way. "Surdas Bhajan" is a beautiful devotional song with guitar, tampura & vocals, dedicated to and in respect of Surdas, a blind singer from the 15th century, still celebrated for his chants dedicated to Krishna. The same relaxation as in "The valley", can be noticed in "White Swan", played with guitar & violin. My mind went into a deeper state of relaxation, I almost fell into a dream state with it. It's an improvised raga on the white swan's beauty. "Mandalam" is performed by voice / tampura only. This track flows fluently into a double vocal song which is called "Annapurna", to conclude the release in a very devotional way.

Rain Tree Rec. Nadaka & The Basavaraj Brothers : Live in Paris -cd+dvd- (IND,2007)****°

Guitarist Nadaka with the Basavaraj Brothers makes great music based upon Classical Indian Music themes and origins, in a contemporary way, that becomes flavoured with what can be associated with a “Fusion” feeling. It was only after a second listen that I realized how fast the band sometimes actually played, because the music sounds so light and logical you hardly realize this. The music might be reminiscent of groups like Shakti, while violin player Raghavendra might recall Jean Luc Ponty. Like in jazz, but this is of course not strange to raga either, each musician, like also the violin player, some musicians get a few solo parts, mostly not far away from ideas like opening dialogues. It is nice to hear how each member adds his own tension to the composition, but spontaneous additional improvisation is another important aspect. The inclusion of guitar (a specially designed model with movable frames) to the Indian instruments like sitar or tambura, flute and percussion (tabla, pallavi, kanjira and mridangam), and the improvised violin, fits and completes perfectly with an extra colour, sometimes slightly jazzy, ranging with variation according to the composition, mostly completely adapted into it. Also the additional vocals in different Indian styles contribute beautifully. The way in which the group adapts the solo music of ragas into a form with so many musicians and into a compact contemporary form makes this Indian group rather unique. The live recording is of a professional quality. The CD alone is worth the purchase. 65 minutes of highlights of two Paris concerts is more than satisfactory.

23 minutes from the concerts, or the compact composition of the opening track of the cd, “Gamapa” followed by the second, larger track, with some solos, “Laya” has been chosen for the DVD broadcast, as well as a prepared professional clip, a rather artistic impression, presenting a track from the “Living Colours” recording, the last one with images of India mixed with it.

The first clip is a dynamically filmed video with many close-ups, fitting with the fast interaction. The second track, “Layla” uses multi-layers of images (black & white and colour) showing well the different solos, and how musicians interact with elastic contributing creativity, with a disarming, clarifying spontaneity. With a few video-effects the camera images changes a bit along with the evolutions in the composition and improvisation. Additionally to the audio, it was not just a pleasure to actually seeing the music played in addition to the audio, it was also beautiful to see the vocal interactive improvisations, and for me personally, also, how Nadaka actually plays his guitar. The video makes this all even more a remarkable experience. Recommended !

Video : "Gamapa" & more on youtube & http://public-access.org/archives/190

Audio : http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1959617 & info : http://cdbaby.com/cd/nadaka8

Description with video : http://www.abstractlogix.com/xcart/product.php?productid=23138

Homepage : http://www.nadaka.com