East Meets West Music
| East Meets West Music | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Founder | The Ravi Shankar Foundation |
| Distributor(s) | Harmonia Mundi |
| Genre |
Classical World music |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Location | Encinitas, CA |
| Official website | Official web site |
East Meets West Music is the official recording label of the Ravi Shankar Foundation. With access to the sitar master's personal archive of thousands of hours of live performance audio, film footage, interviews, and studio masters, EMWMusic provides unique access for the listener. In addition to Ravi Shankar's personally selected source material from the archive, EMWMusic also hopes to provide a platform for new artists, projects, and collaborations.
History
The Ravi Shankar Foundation launched East Meets West Music (EMWMusic) in 2010, with the first release scheduled for Ravi Shankar's ninetieth birthday on April 7, 2010.
Catalog
UTSAV Series
Released: 2013. An East Meets West Music Series Celebrating the life, music and legacy of Ravi Shankar, featuring musicians and students inspired by the Maestro and who continue his mission of Peace through Music. The first two installments include Arghyam - The Offering by world-renowned classical Hindustani vocalist in the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharan Tradition, Ashwini Bhide Deshpande and Raga & Raj, a set of daring experimental compositions by Barry Phillips - a long time student of Ravi Shankar - Linda Burman-Hall harpsichordists extraordinaire with Lux Musica Ensemble!
UTSAV Series: Arghyam - The Offering
Released: 2013.
Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, world-renowned classical Hindustani vocalist in the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana tradition, pays loving tribute to the Maestro, Ravi Shankar. This recording features four Ravi Shankar ragas, performed by Ashwini Bhide Deshpande and overlaid with her lyrical bandishes, as well as one original raga by Ashwini Bhide Deshpande. The Selections, both intricate and soaring, feature the talents of Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, who Shankar recognized during his lifetime as a vocalist blessed with both a beautiful voice and the scholarship retain the spirit of the tradition. East Meets West Music: UTSAV Series! Arghyam - The Offering
UTSAV Series: Raga & Raj
Released: 2013. Celebrating Ravi Shankar's life and musical legacy of East-Meets-West cultural exchange, Barry Phillips, Linda Burman-Hall and Lux Musica Ensemble (with guest Debopriyo Sarkar) present a selection of daring, experimental compositions that reflect and re-imagine the musical encounters between North India and British Traditions encountered during the late 1780s. Featuring compositions by Lou Harrison, William Hamilton Bird, and Vishnu Digambar Paluskar arranged by Phillips and Burman-Hall, and an original composition by Phillips, the music of Raga & Raj is built on the affinities and attractions between North Indian and British musical traditions as they encountered each other in the late 1700s and 1800s. Raga & Raj reinterprets the music of that intriguing historical moment, illuminating for us the triumphs and challenges of this type of cross-cultural exchange and reminding us of Ravi Shankar's musical mission and life's work: Peace through Music. East Meets West Music: UTSAV Series! Raga & Raj
The Living Room Sessions Part 1
Released: 2012. In October 2011, at the age of 91, Ravi Shankar invited his long time-tabla accompanist, Tanmoy Bose, to his home in Encinitas, California for an informal recording session. Over four days in Shankar's living room, the recorded seven different Ragas. The resulting music is pure Ravi Shankar, combining his deep musical experience and brilliant technique with the passion he brings to live performance. The first two releases, The Living Room Sessions Part 1, consists of four tracks that span a wide range of Indian classical styles - from the opening Raga Malgunji, a meditative raga reflecting on the distance between the human and the supreme; to the lighter, lyrical Raga Khamaj and Raga Kedara; and closing the Raga Satyajit, a spontaneous raga dedicated to the late director and friend of Shankar, Satyajit Ray, that is both melodic and rhythmic. The seamless musical dialog between Shankar and Bose creates a uniquely stirring listening experience. Both intimate and masterly, The Living Room Sessions Part 1 is an invitation into the home and musical genius of Ravi Shankar. East Meets West Music: The Living Room Sessions Part 1
The Living Room Sessions Part 2
Released: 2013. No less noteworthy and masterly, then its predecessor The 2013 Grammy winning Living Room Sessions Part 1, with three of the last session recording made by Maestro Ravi Shankar before his passing in December 2012. Session Mishra Kafi introduces the set with a beautiful Alaap and Gat in medium tempo Deepchandi Taal. Session Sindhi Bhairavi, with its Gat in Dadra and Teen Taal, highlights in the in-depth facility with rhythm and improvisational flow which he and Bose have built over their years performing together. And during the Teen Taal of Session Bhairavi, Shankar's playing is characterized by such intensity, clarity, and delight that it reveals, once more, the Maestro's musical genius as something to reckon with, even in his tenth decade. East Meets West Music: The Living Room Sessions Part 2
Tenth Decade In Concert: Live in Escondido
Released: 2012. Cinematographer and director Alan Kozlowski presents an intimate look at 91-year-old Ravi Shankar performing in Southern California in October 2011. Kozlowski, known for his work on documentaries featuring the likes of Jeff Bridges and Jackson Browne as well as feature films such as Travelers and Magicians, offers a uniquely personal perspective on Ravi Shankar. The filmmaker has studied music with Ravi since 1978, and has produced a documentary honoring Ravi called Sangeet Ratna and co-produced with George Harrison a collection of Ravi's work called In Celebration. The love of subject is clear in the film, but it's Ravi's raw and powerful performance that leaves the most lasting impression. Though Ravi has curtailed his busy touring schedule, his playing continues to draw intense praise. Songlines Magazine says that the master has lost "absolutely nothing in the way of performances." East Meets West Music: Tenth Decade in Concert - Live in Escondido
The Nine Decades Series
First release: 2010. EMWMusic’s inaugural release, Nine Decades: Volume 1, is the first in a multi-volume series. The Nine Decades series features rare and never-before released recordings hand-picked by Ravi Shankar from his vast archive and remastered for an optimum listening experience. With live performances and studio recordings pivotal to his development as an artist and reflective of unique times and places, the Nine Decades series provides insightful perspective on a career that spans 70-plus years and is a direct bridge between the artist himself and his listeners. East Meets West Music: NINE DECADE SERIES
Nine Decades: Volume 1 (1967–68)
Released: 2010. Raga Gangeshwari, the centerpiece of Volume 1, takes listeners to an outdoor concert at a temple on the banks of the Ganges in 1968. Though recorded with one hand-held microphone, Raga Gangeshwari is representative of the archives many treasures, which the artist describes in his liner notes as “not recorded with sophisticated audio equipment and yet they exhibit the power of life in live performance that has a value beyond any technological shortcomings.” The intimate quality of the recording and virtuosic playing allows listeners to experience a page from the artist’s diary circa 1968. Raga Gangeshwari is performed with Kamala Chakravarty on tanpura and Ustad Alla Rakha on tabla. Also featured on this volume is Vedic chanting by temple priests, as well as audience reactions to an early performance in the West. East Meets West Music: NINE DECADES VOL 1
Nine Decades: Volume 2 (1968–69)
Released: 2011. The second installation of the Nine Decades series, Reminiscence of North Vista, is a live recording from a private part at Ravi's North Vista home in Los Angeles on August 29, 1969. Ravi Shankar moved to the Hollywood house in 1968 and regularly had parties attended by luminaries such as George Harrison, John Lennon, Peter Sellers, Marlon Brando and many others. This recording perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the performances at these gatherings. Recorded just one week after his legendary Woodstock appearance, the set features the Maestro performing to evening Ragas with Alla Rakha on Tabla (as well as the sounds of crickets and party-goers). This is a unique performance by two artists at the height of their power, performing in an informal setting in front of family and friends. East Meets West Music: NINE DECADES VOL 2
Nine Decades: Volume 3 (1950–54)
Released: 2011. Volume three in the Nine decade series, entitled Orchestral Experimentations, is a set of nine studio tracks featuring Ravi Shankar's earliest compositional experimentations with his National Orchestra between 1950 and 1954. The orchestra consisted of many of the finest Indian Musicians of the period, and in these recordings one senses the excitement Ravi felt at having such resources at his disposal. Not only was Ravi inspired by the players to experiment with the orchestration, but he enjoyed the freedom to explore both North and South Indian systems, as well as use some Western technique. Ravi also maintained his natural inclination for improvisation by recording usually within an hour or two completing the composition.
Raga reissue
Released: 2010. EMWMusic released for the first time on DVD the 1971 documentary film Raga: A Film Journey into the Soul of India. Directed by Howard Worth, Raga was released by Apple Films through the support of Shankar's friend George Harrison. The DVD release features a digitally remastered 35mm print optimized to modern color-range resolution and standard, and a fully remastered audio soundtrack. East Meets West Music: RAGA