Tendrils, my fourth CD, is based entirely on Indian ragas.  Composition began after almost one year of private study with Harihar Rao, Ravi Shankar's senior disciple.  The influence of Indian classical music is also pervasive on my previous CD, Hamoa, but the present CD contains four pieces which actually use the raga form.

Pink Moon is a fitting beginning in this context.  It is based on Nand Kedar, an invention of Ram Narayan, the great sarangi artist.  This is actually the first raga I remember hearing on a recording back in 1975, and it had a powerful effect.   I chose a piano, with Indian tuning, along with various Indian and Balinese percussion, a digeridoo rhythmic ostinato, and tanpura, to present this sweet and hopeful raga.  The title presented itself when I was driving home from a Saturday evening concert of Indian music on the 134 from Eagle Rock.  Hanging in the sky in front of me was a large, pink full moon, which I had never seen before or since.

The Drowning of Time was inspired by another great sarangi artist, Sultan Khan.   However, it was actually his singing of an Indian folk song which led me to select Kirvani as the basis for composition.  The plaintive, raw timbre of an African harp was ultimately selected to be the melodic voice.  This stark, spare voice is contrasted by deep, resonant percussion timbres from India, the Near East and Japan, plus tanpura .

Cloven With Voices is based on a folk melody Harihar Rao sang for me during one of my lessons.  After this haunting strain is repeated several times, two complex  percussion ostinatos enter, one at a time, followed by an aggressive sitar and tabla entrance, entirely through-composed, and  based on Madhu Kauns.

Tendrils was engendered from my enthusiasm for a Hariprasad Chaurasia and Anindo Chatterjee recording of Chandra Kauns, which remains a favorite to this day.  I used a Near Eastern kawala  for the melodic voice, and a bonang for the drone, rather than a  tanpura.  After the opening alap, there are a number of tempo increases throughout the piece.

All of the compositions on this recording were composed in 1995.

- Michael Robinson, December 1999, Lahaina

© 1999 by Michael Robinson All rights reserved

 

Tendrils (Azure Miles Records)

Listening to Pink Moon, the first compositions on Tendrils one is immediately struck by the unusual timbral juxtaposition of the piano sounds and the tanpura drone. Then, one notices that the unusual skipping melodic line fragments and at times repeated gestures seem to derive more from Western contemporary music, or from jazz. These are juxtaposed with various unusual Eastern scales and tunings. Somehow,it all fits in the musical tapestry that Michael Robinson weaves. At a certain point, the percussion instruments, from India and other lands, intensify, as the piano melodies grow less tonal, presenting, as a result, a wild, alive moment.

The sonorities in The Drowning of Time are resonant and striking. Six minutes into the work, the pointalistic, rapidly repeated notes and other rhythmic sounds take flight with glissandi and various surprises.

Angular sitar melodies atop a vigorous tabla percussion base characterize Cloven by Voices.

Perhaps the most remarkable composition in this recording is of the title composition, Tendrils. Periodic downward spiraling bell figures mark segments of this work. A resonant wind sonority is heard soloing vigorously in an Eastern scale, yet articulated in an angular jazz-inflected post-bebop style, reminiscent of Josef Zawinul. One thinks that the piece is winding down at the fifteen minute mark, only to discover that the percussion beat will change and spark the mix, as 'Tendrils' continues in a new manner for the closing fifteen minute section, ending with a flourish of activity and energy.

- CDeMUSIC