Album Review — Beyond the Ragasphere

One of the truly amazing artists I discovered — thanks to Shakti — is Debashish Bhattacharya. But my problem was Debashish’s published albums were neither in the traditional format nor were works of any great collaboration or fusion.

This album is an awesome work of fusion — most notably Debashish invited several guest artists including the widely acclaimed jazz guitarist John McLaughlin, in the song titled Mystical Morning. Tuned to Raga Charukesi, this is a nice blend of Hindustani Slide Guitar, Western Guitar and brilliant, brilliant Bass guitar work, presumably by Mainak Chowdhury. This piece makes the entire album worth buying, but this album has more to offer.

The first piece, whose full-song-preview is what made me buy this album, is a classic Kirwani which is a treat to listen to, especially when Debashish plays it (I had listened to him play Kirwani is another concert).

Almost every song has a uniqueness of its own — Reflections Remain has the clap rhythm, Khamaj is a very engaging classical piece, Indospaniola is a good Indo-Flamenco fusion, JD2 Pillusion is an addictive Pilu and lot of calculations. 2 tracks, 4 and 8, are somewhat eclipsed by the rest of the work on the album.

This in my opinion is Debashish’s one of the first fusion attempts. Good fusion avoids domination of one style and avoids noise. This album meets both criteria and much beyond.

PS: My recommendations for great fusion albums of all times are Miles from India and Floating Point. Bada Boom is also decent, but it is not at the top spot.