What does longing sound like? A composer versed in Hindustani classical music might arrive at Raga Bageshri, a melodic framework meant to evoke the yearning for reunion with one's lover. Baghesri dictates the melody of a number of romantic film soundtracks, including 'Aaja Re Pardesi', the mystical encounter-cute among the misty pines of northern India that opens the 1958 film Madhumati. Just like that film's female protagonist, electronic musician and singer Arushi Jain turned to Bageshri in a wildlife-filled landscape, using the raga to compose the nine tracks on her latest record in a makeshift studio on the shores of Long Island. What Jain longs for in this record, however, is not a lover but a feeling. On EnjoymentJain understands a joy that lies tantalizingly out of reach, bringing Raga Bageshri-informed melodies into dazzling contact with modular composition and digital manipulation.
This is no easy task, given the baggage of a genre whose history spans centuries. Attempts to mix Hindustani classical and electronic music date back to at least the late 1960s, as documented by an archival collection and accompanying book compiled by Emptyset's Paul Purgas and released last year. Indian musicologist festival.de/magazine/gita-sarabhai-a-partial-portrait” class=”external-link” data-event-click=”{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"https://www.ctm-festival.de/magazine/gita-sarabhai-a-partial-portrait"}” href=”https://www.ctm-festival.de/magazine/gita-sarabhai-a-partial-portrait” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>Gita Sarabhai established India's first electronic music studio at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, in 1969 and experimented with Moog tuning to perform Hindustani scales. But Sarabhai was a purist, seeing in Western harmony a dangerous, alien influence on the traditions she was trying to preserve in a state newly freed from colonial rule. Jain remains open to the possibilities of hybridization and cross-pollination, creating her own sound in the space opened up by diaspora. Now, working with instrumentalists for the first time, she folds a bit of New York into her cascading, hybrid tunes.
These compositions represent Jain at her most vibrant, achieving a cornucopia of sounds from a single raga. Effervescent samples from classical guitarist Ria Modak punctuate a sea of electronics on “Still Dreaming.” MIZU's aching cello line on “Exquisite Portraiture” morphs in and out of a midnight hum. Flutist Annie Wu has a shimmering, reverberating duet with Jain's synth work over a restrained, evolving tempo on “Imagine an Orchestra.” Jain's pointillist sound design techniques also add to the pleasure Enjoyment. A watery feel permeates “Our Touching Tongues,” where Payton MacDonald's shimmering marimba flows back and forth. And Jain breaks her voice into grains of sound on “Infinite Delight,” creating tiny textures even as she bends between microtones. If Under the Purple Sky was bathed in the hues of the sunset, Enjoyment emits iridescence through a variety of electronic and acoustic textures.
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