COMPOSERS: Sulochana Brahaspati
LABELS: Nimbus
WORKS: Raga Bilaskhani Todi; Raga Mishra Bhairavi
PERFORMER: Sulochana Brahaspati (singer), Sultan Khan (sarangi), Anindo Chatterjee (tabla), Amod Vardhan, Christian Ledoux (tambura)
CATALOGUE NO: NI 5305 DDD
You will more often hear the sarangi accompanying singers, which is the way Sultan Khan appears, following Sulochana Brahaspati in patient, close imitation. Nimbus gets the tone just right, though the recording dispatches Khan into a far corner. But the deep, rich voice, at times like a mellow tenor, is this disc’s pride.
Her lithe technique gives astonishing control over tiny details of expressive intensification as she charges the long, slow melismas with the erotic longing of the words.