Satyajit Ray's Jalsaghar and Indian music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5EFzEZdz0M

A couple of weeks ago i happened to catch a projection of this film as part of a film festival organized by one of my city's architecture schools, which explored the theme of home.

I was immensely surprised with the stunning atmosphere that the movie created and the poetic touch of Satyajit Ray, a director that at the time was unknown to me. But what i really found most striking about it was the music. It is a central theme for the story (Jalsaghar translates to The Music Room), and the way it is incorporated is fascinating. When the performances start on screen, you really get removed from everything else related to the movie, and enter this trance like state, because the music is truly hypnotizing. I had never heard anything like it before, and that moment on the projection room, with that sound system, in that building created the perfect atmosphere for it. It's so immersive, it's unreal really. The strings and the voice (taken as an instrument) build up slowly and progressively, revolving around axes, or something else i don't know what it is, in a composition that seems to have no structure or even weight; it sounds ethereal. The drums create a rhythm that doesn't develop and reinforce this trance like state.

I really felt in love with this music and want to hear more of it. What would watmm recommend me?

That thing he does with the voice at the end gives me weird chills

  On 5/9/2012 at 2:52 PM, Kanakori said:

That thing he does with the voice at the end gives me weird chills

i didn't feel weird and cold chills during the whole thing or any other musical performance in the film.

instead i felt deeply relaxed and most of all... weightless

  On 5/9/2012 at 2:44 PM, ruiagnelo said:

I really felt in love with this music and want to hear more of it. What would watmm recommend me?

Are you specificaly looking for vocal music?

Although not indian music (Qawwali), I know Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan can sometimes give me that sense of being removed from everything except the music.

The devotional aspect of qawwali encourages this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTdNA5oyFgE

If you're not solely interested in vocals, the violin can be an extremely effective expressional tool, with the micro-tones and all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-B1LRA0rLs

The particularly passionate performance at 6:10 and onward of Umamahesh (one of Vikku Vinayakram's son) on a Hellborg composition.

(Unashamingly promoting what I think was the best and most honest band of fusion between Indian(carnatic) music and rock/jazz/improv)

really wonderful—i definitely need to look into this further. thanks a lot for sharing.

Great film & an excellent scene from the movie. I really like a lot of the music in Ray's films.

Y'know one of the best places to start is The Darjeeling Limited soundtrack which hijacked a lot of the music from his movies including Jalshagar & features some other cool Indian pieces.

riddimwise....check the albino kanjira player Shri G. Harishankar....

  On 5/9/2012 at 5:50 PM, Barbe said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTdNA5oyFgE

  On 5/9/2012 at 7:55 PM, megapussi said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJbiILmfuPc

these two are just wonderful! exactly what i wanted to hear next.

are there studio/live recordings of this, beside the youtube performance videos?

the carnatic drums were pretty wicked... looks like tabla technics applied to jugs & what not.

of course zakir is a master of tabla modulation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8W1rgCrTMg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNjRoEkv_WE&feature=relmfu

A couple of musicians worth mentionning : Ustad Ali Akhbar Khan (Sarod), Debashish Bhattacharya (modified slide guitar, no not a dobro), Balamurali Krishna (Singer),

Annapurna Devi (Surbahar) if you can find anything. And that's probably enough music for a life-time right there.

There's a crap-load of records of everything available everywhere (Amazon, ebay, torrents, abstractlogix, etc.) Good luck.