In Light of India

Edinburgh-based sitar player and ethnomusicologist Alec Cooper plays his cards well on his debut album In Light of India by exploring nearly all possibilities that the Indian instrument offers him. Though his compositions are anchored in the traditions of Hindustani classical music, he expands that range into world music by using sonic elements like the Ugandan thumb piano and bluegrass. The album opener ‘Morning by the Ganges’ is an interesting potpourri of sounds – the sitar meanders lazily on a melodic bed created by the santoor (hammered dulcimer), elevated to reality by field recordings from a Varanasi ghat (river steps). This solemn mysticism is taken a notch higher on the primeval-sounding ‘Charu’ with prayer-like incantations. The album also contains one of the best renditions of The Beatles’ ‘Across the Universe’, where a meditative atmosphere is conjured up. The only oddity is the bluegrass-styled American railroad song ‘John Henry’.

The songs follow a loose pattern – they start off slow and end in frenzied improvisational solos, usually accompanied by the tabla. But the album has no central theme. Instead, an overarching blanket of ambient electronic music gives it a timeless appearance. In a nutshell, Cooper looks upon the whole world with the light provided by ancient Indian music.