Veena Dreams

Raghunath Manet is originally from Puducherry in South India and splits his time between there and France. He is not only a phenomenal veena player, given the talent on show on this album, but, among other things, also a bharata-natyam dancer and famed for working with a wide range of musicians. Something of that collaborative soundworld can be felt here.

This is an album full of energy, something which you sense as soon as you are over the classically short alapana on the first track, ‘Veena Diamonds’. This is the longest track at 16 minutes and, from the moment the veena takes off one minute in, the pace and technique are dazzling. There is a great deal of tanam (the rhythmic performance of syllables) and track two (‘Raghunath Jathi’) turns this into an almost rap-like element. There are moments of repose – ‘Happy End’, ‘Veena Pearls’ and ‘Siddha’ are more meditative, but their melodic invention still gives them drive. The pace picks up again with ‘Sindu’ and the title-track, where great drumming pushes things on, before the more classical final, ‘What to Say’, gives us a full picture of just how steeped in the Karnatic tradition Manet truly is.