Notes
Ronobir Lahiri has been playing the sitar for almost 20 years. After intense classical training in Calcutta, India as a teenager, under Sri Deepak Choudhuri, the preeminant disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar, he returned to this country and began composing scores for theatre, film, and television. Soon after coming to Los Angeles in 2005, he recorded and produced his debut album, Broad Strokes, which marked a notable departure from the North Indian Classical Tradition. His second album, on sale here, is also self-produced, and titled Joy for Silverlake. Using elements of raga and tala theory, he explores the tension between computer generatated music and human emotion. By overlaying traditional Indian ragas onto ambient, house, techno, and club tracks, he seeks to create a sound environment that is both intense yet soothing, joyful yet profound, uplifting yet understated. More than anything else, he embarks on this experiment with great respect and humility towards the rich and complex Indian musical tradition from which he came.
