Ether

Anupama Bhagwat belongs to a band of female classical instrumentalists in Hindustani music that is rapidly shrinking in number. Still fairly unknown in India, she has already made big news touring across the US and Europe. In her latest album, she plays ‘Ahir Bhairav’, a common early morning raga. Bhagwat explores the scale in a meditative alap as she builds the mood of serenity that the raga demands. In the more progressive movements of jod and jhala, she takes you into her own sphere of fancy improvisations before the heavy-duty pyrotechnics fly off her fretboard. The second track is an evocative ‘Raga Jogkauns’. Flirting around the seventh note and the softer second note, she is adept at handling this raga. Her imaginative lingering on the fourth note, or the madhyam, is exceptional. The second track is also where Gurdain Rayatt’s sensitive handling of the tabla makes its presence felt.