ORANGE SUNSET
Alessandro Gandola Anupam Shobhakar
THE PROJECT
Orange Sunset was founded in Mumbai (Bombay) in January of 2007. It was a meeting between the Indian classical music maestro Anupam Shobhakar, the youngest sarode master of all time, and Alessandro Gandola, one of the most eccentric and original musicians on the international scene, who loves using his soprano saxophone to discover traditions in unexplored or little-known areas of research. The sarode is practically unknown in the West, as the soprano saxophone is in Asia. The encounter was unprecedented, a voyage on uncharted waters. The work is not based on theoretical elements. It is, above all, communication and empathy between two different cultures reaching out to each other through the most powerful universal language, music.
In full respect for the tradition of Indian classical music, creativity and spontaneity are the fundamental elements of the duo’s modus operandi. It’s not a work of contamination or something made up: following a completely free initial approach, the work took shape by obeying fundamental canons, which leave ample space for improvisation and creativity, the vital wellspring of ORANGE SUNSET.
In the search for new musical fragrances and essences, this unusual musical encounter was extended to include other musicians. A band was formed which strengthened the India/Italy relationship. There are the tablas, played by Federico Sanesi, in counterpoint with the Neapolitan tammoras played by Arnaldo Vacca. Rhythmically, the relationship becomes even more defined, and a throbbing pulse emerges which, somewhat surprisingly, unites Naples with Bombay. Stefano Profeta’s double bass is the central instrument, forming a bridge between the two cultures. The meeting was not casual. All three, accomplished professionals on their instruments, have a serious awareness of Indian classical music, and their experiences have the international flavour of the inspired seeker with an ever-renewing artistic and creative sensitivity.
THE ALBUM ( unreleased yet)
The album is composed of ten cuts: five are for sarode and sax, and five feature the other musicians.
The choice was made to emphasise the freshness and intimacy of the musical encounter, to favour emotional rather than technical perfection.
Nearly all the cuts are first performances: they didn’t exist before, either as melodic lines or as forms.
The duo cuts were recorded live, at home with the windows open over the waters of Lake Como, during Anupam Shobhakar’s two-week stay in Italy. In the end, the duo cuts available for the album included an hour and a half of music.
The cuts with the band were recorded in one afternoon. The goal in the studio was to take home one or two cuts to be inserted on the duo album. The session took place in one recording studio, live, the first time the band met. Nothing was prepared. Some ideas were exchanged, the raga was decided upon, and the recording was made with the mikes open the whole time. Though a series of setbacks and a limited amount of time posed limits on finding a suitable studio, the type of approach was decided upon precisely and thoughtfully: to work with immediacy, without premeditation, to capture and make use of the expressive force that can be unleashed only in a situation of free creative communication.
The response of the invited musicians was surprising, and ideas were pooled with great naturalness and competence. In the end, only one of the takes recorded that afternoon didn’t make the album, because it would have required too much editing to be coherent with the philosophy of the project. As it happened, the Orange Sunset band was formed on the first try.
Live recording greatly limited the work of mixing, editing and equalisation, and created more than a few technical problems. But it was the price to pay for the decision made beforehand to give preference to expressive force, emotive intelligence, freshness and honesty, rather than the requirements imposed by technological artifice.
Rather than cold mechanical precision, preference was give to the human warmth of a live recording, where for example a broken sarode string didn’t interrupt the cut, but sent it in one direction rather than another; as part of a creation in progress, it determined its shape.
THE RAGA
Each and every piece follows its own course...based on the raga.
The Raga is the ocean on which Orange Sunset sails. Saying raga is like saying India, but what is a raga?
A raga is hard to explain in words…or sometimes to the western listener…for it is not a scale nor a mode, but is based on both…if intellectually grasped…it is the “feeling” of the melodic shapes and forms and the deep introspective qualities of its sound-scapes and “moods” that bring the raga to life.
It is said that all forms of human emotions and feelings are based on nine principal "rasas" or states of being...like joy, pathos, eroticism, divinity etc…these are the basic human emotions, and as experience grows they become more complex, subtle and shaded, also amplified and reassured or confusing, depending on the state of being. These are the gamut of emotions that we as human beings experience through our mortal tenure.
The ragas are a musical mirror of these complex and simple states of being. Indian classical musicians look at ragas with great reverence and respect, they are treated as celestial supernatural beings capable of healing as well as being destructive powers, and every time one is to meditate upon a raga, he or she is advised to treat these beautiful musical forms with respect and reverence much like entering a temple or a church…and then allowing your faith and your fervour of practice to show you the way..
That brings "prana" or life into the raga and takes you into a world where no words, thought or intellectual properties exist…only shapes, images and the true experience of sound, and those images and shapes imbue the mind and spirit with beautiful colours.
To sum it up in the line from the vedas
"ramyate iti ragah"-that which colours the mind is raga.
The ragas chosen have their own life and colours, and along with the traditional Indian classical concepts, Orange Sunset tried new things…but in the framework of the format, such as alap, jod etc.
For every raga, each note has its specific role: from king to prime minister to notes that cannot be held.
In the classical music of northern India, each raga corresponds to a different moment of the day, and can only be played at that moment, whereas in the Carnatic system of the South, ragas can be played anytime.
From the point of view of the North, except for the last cut, which is the alab of an early-morning raga, all the others on this album are based on night or late-evening ragas.