RAIN GARDEN - CD CLOSER TO THE FLAME

Popis - CLOSER TO THE FLAME:
Chris Conway - keyboards, acoustic 10 string & electric 9 string guitars, flute, bamboo flute, laud, voice, zither, qen, double bass, kalimba, tin whistle & horn. Carl Peberdy - sitar, tabla, bamboo & tin whistles, hammer dulcimer, lyrebec, bodhran, voice, zither, qen, naal, bamboo & brass horns, swanny whistle. Mary Browne - voice, percussion, alto saxophone, keyboards, tin whistle, tanpura Sudha Kheterpal - Morrocan drums, naal, piping, tabla, kalimba, zither, swoosh, matches Dave Everitt - double bass, tin whistle - 4, 5, 6, 11 Following on from thier Practical Candle Magic album, Closer To The Flame , finds The Rain Garden now in 4 piece mode (and occasionally 5 piece) mode. Percussionist Sudha Kheterpal (now with pop band Faithless) adding a more solid percussive base to the groups sound and freeing the others to roam on a wider range of instruments. The musicians gathered in an attik studio and over the course of several days produced some extrordinary music. There was a real creative freshness on this album. New ideas were flowing back and forth and the improvisations were especially stunning. The album feels at times like a sacred ritual. The Rain Garden began in 1985 when multi-instrumentalists Chris Conway and Carl Peberdy were introduced by their sitar teacher Dharamvir Singh. Sharing interests in Indian, Celtic, Balkan and other world musics they formed a duo and toured the UK, combining world music influences with improvisation. Other musicians joined the group which then had a floating line-up. The Rain Garden have released several albums over the years, each featuring rich instrumentation, innovative arrangements and improvisation. In recent years Chris and Carl have been pursuing other projects and although Carl has recorded on some of Chris's albums and they have performed live together, their new album, India, is their first album for 10 years. Biographies Chris Conway is active in many genres of music – Celtic, world music, electronic, jazz fusion, singer-songwriter and more. His connection with Indian music began when he studied the sitar in the 80s. He has been in Indo-jazz band Jazz Orient (also known as Re-Orient) for 18 years with sitar master Baluji Shrivastav with whom he has recorded 5 albums. He has also worked with violin maestro Dr L. Subramanium, tabla fusionist Talvin Singh and toured with the Pushkala Gopal & Unnikrishnan dance company. Carl Peberdy studied sitar under Dharamvir Singh, and classical Indian vocal from Kumar Shaswat, Sanchita Pal and Pandit Ajay Pohankar, and studied at Dartington College of Arts and the Birmingham Conservatoire (Bmus Raga Sangeet). Has regularly performed both as a solo sitar player and with traditional Indian dance ensembles, devotional groups and many fusion ensembles. He has also designed and constructed his own unique stringed instruments.