[.ca] Music Of The Himalayas

Chronique amazon.fr:
"Music Of The Himalayas" est un enregistrement live réalisé le 13 septembre 2000 au festival "Settembre Musica" de Turin en Italie. Si le folklore tibétain a pour effet de purifier l'esprit ce n'est pas tout à fait par hasard. C'est certainement parce qu'il est basé sur le sacré et la célébration de la création et des émotions (comme la joie ou le romantisme de l'amour par exemple). Les quatre actes (d'une douzaine de minutes chacun) qui composent cette œuvre, nous transportent dans l'ambiance zen des montagnes himalayennes, refuge de traditions ancestrales qui demeurent intactes aujourd'hui. Il est vrai que de tels paysages incitent forcément à se remettre en question, tout au moins à faire le vide et à ressentir les choses de manière plus intérieure, donc plus profonde. C'est un peu cela que nous raconte Rahul Sharma, ce descendant et disciple d'un maître du Sufyana Qalam, la musique traditionnelle des Sufi du Kashmir. Voyage dans la pureté donc... où seuls résonnent les cordes métalliques du Sanskrit, sorte de luth aux cordes innombrables, ancêtre éloigné de la harpe, assorti de quelques percussions tibétaines. Respirez, détendez-vous, votre esprit s'élève déjà... --Luc Demont

From Amazon.co.uk:
Rahul Kumar is the son of Shivkumar Sharma and a world-renowned poet of the santoor in his own right. In fact, the two masters often play together. Until recently, this trapezoid-shaped hammered zither, with its hundred-plus strings and curved wooden mallets, was considered appropriate only for Kashmiri folk tunes. But over the past half-century (a blink of an eye along India's ancient timeline), its rippling, metallic glissandos and arpeggios have become accepted even in rarified Indian music circles. Like his father, the younger virtuoso has solved the problem of how to create rounded, soothing tones from an essentially staccato medium. Heard live before a nearly silent audience, Rahul's deceptively delicate touch strikes fire while his fervent improvisations breathe deep and blossom. The listener becomes blissfully passive, like travellers so enchanted by the journey that they no longer care about reaching their destination. --Christina Roden

Outstanding Poetry:
People equate the Himalayas with Tibet, but in fact the foothills are in India. This poetic live performance is not energetic, but it is powerful in its subtlety and movement with fine fingerwork of Rahul Sharma coupled with the gentle rippling percussions in the background. A slow melodious journey in classical North Indian music.

Music from the Muslim Himalayas:
If you just skim through this disc at your local record store, you could get bored with it at first. But if you really sit back and listen to it closely, I guarantee you'll grow pretty addicted to it. On an especially brain-dead day last week, I crashed out on the carpet, hit the replay button several times, and listened to the whole thing again. Rahul Sharma is a well-known Kashmiri musician performing on a traditional zither-related North Indian/Middle Eastern instrument known as the "santoor". (Anthony Quinn performed on a Greek variant, the "santouri", in "Zorba the Greek" and anybody who has ever stood beneath the Acropolis in Athens and listened to one of those old-time Macedonian santouri players will know how fascinating an instrument it is). Sharma's music is essentially inspired by the Muslim Sufi (mystic) tradition and, like Sufism, is predominately Persian in origin, but you'll definitely be able to hear the rich influence of the Indian subcontinent on this disc. Like Sufism's dances and other meditative practices, Sharma's music is fundamentally celebratory of God, not mournful. It's also intentionally entrancing, prefering to explore the "poetry" of spontaneous musical reflection instead of straight-forward melody. Sharma's masterful playing on the extremely difficult santoor is complimented by two folk percussionists playing a number of tinkling instruments whose names I don't know, as well as on that strange, rippling Indian drum that sounds like a huge bubble popping. End verdict: fantastic recording. This is a live performance in Turin, but the audience kindly keeps all coughing and hiccuping down to a very tolerable minimum. 5 stars.

Amazing album!:
Rahul Sharma has definitely proven himself as an artist, apart from his illustrious father Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. He is able to take the listener to unbelievable levels through the smooth trickling sounds of the santoor. The mind is calmed and images of the mountains and rivers come forward to bring the listener to a state of peacefulness. The melodies are based off of Sufi music from the valleys of Jammu and Kashmir, some composed by Rahul Sharma himself. These Indian sounds remind us that amidst all the terror and hatred that surfaces in the region, the arts originating from that region bring about the beauty and oneness which is humankind.

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