The Sound of the Soul

Debashish Bhattacharya is one of the world's great musical innovators. He's a composer and virtuoso guitarist, who transformed the Indian music scene by designing a guitar with the sound and microtonal range that he needed. As a young man, he was a fan of Hawaiian steel guitar, while also sharing his family's love of Indian classical styles, so he created a lap steel capable of handling them both. The chaturangui, which he plays here, has three extra sets of strings – two drone strings and 14 resonating strings on the bass side and two rhythm strings on the treble side – making it ideally suited to the fusion projects for which Bhattacharya has become famed. He has played with everyone from kora star Ballaké Sissoko to that unique ukulele exponent Benny Chong and showed off more of his global influences on 2013's Beyond the Ragasphere album, alongside the celebrated dobro player Jerry Douglas and that remarkable guitarist John McLaughlin.

He has also recorded albums of ragas, and this latest set, dedicated to the sarod virtuoso Ali Akbar Khan, is largely influenced by his Indian roots. This time round, Bhattacharya is accompanied only by percussion – he is joined on the first track by Akhilesh Gundechha on the double-headed pakhawaj drum and on the following three tracks by Swapan Chaudhuri on tabla. The opening ‘Ever the Flame Burns’ is a thrilling reminder of his guitar skills. It starts slowly, then builds up into a rapid-fire work-out that demonstrates not just the speed but the control and emotion in his exuberant, inventive playing. Next comes a real tour de force, ‘To His Lotus Feet’, a hypnotic meditation that lasts for over 39 minutes. It starts out as a thoughtful, gently trance-inducing and meandering piece, with the tabla not making an appearance for the first 15 minutes, after which Bhattacharya slowly builds to a punchy finale, as he furiously improvises around the repeated phrases. The title-track continues in the same mood, with its sturdy melody and exuberant improvised flourishes, while the final ‘Colors of Joy’ shows a different side to his work. This is a cheerful, charming and melodic instrumental influenced by both Western and Hawaiian styles – though with the tabla still giving the music an Indian edge.

The fact that he is not joined by Western celebrities may mean that this is not quite such an obviously commercial, cross-over project as some of his earlier work, but you don't have to be an Indian classical aficionado to appreciate his playing. There's a real exhilaration and passion in his guitar work, whether he is improvising around a theme like some great jazz or blues musician, settling back for a more gentle but still intense passage, or being driven to ever more frantic playing as he spars with a percussionist. As John McLaughlin declared, “Debashish is the master of the slide guitar. He has no equal.”