Balachander - The Virtuoso of the Veena [Music of South India]

Balachander is one of the larger names in the history of semi-contemporary South Indian classical music, originally playing on a North Indian sitar no less. Here he plays "Ragam Chakravaakam" in a more or less improvised manner (though all Indian classical is more or less improvised, on this recording the ragam itself hadn't been set until Balachander started plucking the veena). What one will notice when listening to the album is first the alap, in which Balachander brings new levels to the techniques of stretching a note from the instrument and wrenching each nuance of the string from a single note. Read More