Indigo By Nitish Kulkarni

 

Indigo

By

Nitish Kulkarni

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

I have had the good fortune this year in reviewing albums for artists like Grammy winner Ricky Kej, Devan Ekambaram, and Karsh Kale and whilst all have thrilled me with their musical exploits, I must admit to being thrilled to see the name of Nitish Kulkarni arrive on my desktop, and his latest album Indigo for review, and indeed it is this voyage we must travel today.

It’s been a while since we first musically met; it was back in 2015 and his outstanding album of then entitled Synesthetic. On this latest release Nitish takes us on a breath taking journey of 14 delicious tracks that would grace any chill out album proudly.

This travelogue of a global fusion styled collection starts with short Prologue (Alaap) to help us along on our way, and one that morphs into nothing less than the proud title track itself in Indigo. This is a headline piece that drives the listener onward with a composition filled with a multi-instrumental world styled ethic.

On Let Me Show You we have a decided eastern feel to the arrangement, one that contains the Bansuri of Varad Kalhapurkar and is based upon Raga Bhimpalisi. While the following narrative Without You manifests a fluent Asian melody that even has hints of Chinese folk music contained within, but holds firm to its original conception.

I found this next piece particularly compelling, the track called Identity caressed my senses with a gentle persuasion and a soothing tale to tell, the chimes and lightness of this creation were now firmly in the realm of what could be described as new age, but we absolutely have an album here that crosses boundaries with a simplicity of ease and a wondrous charm whilst doing so, the synths on this track were also a marvellous addition to the classy compositional structure.

As we drift to the middle of the album we come across a charming offering that is the epitome of truly good instrumental work, and this gem is called Hello Winter. This largely piano narrative, with a light percussive slice of musical magic, would be easily classed as quality contemporary instrumental music in today’s business, with an added Bansuri too, and is also based on Raga Bageshri, to add a few eastern notes into the pot of this most textured of pieces.

As we touch the hem of the track Falling we realise that we have made it to the half way juncture of the album, and here we find another piece of Raga inspiration, this time from Charukeshi. This light yet addictive offering builds with precision, and manifests a rhythmic overall musical sense of drama to encapsulate us.

This is one of those albums that is hard to leave alone as each track is so different and interesting, including pieces like Night Eyes (Balama), containing traditional vocals by Vibhuti Kavishwar and also the tender tones of Shreyas Bedekar to add a perfect balance of the offering, this is also a fine example of Kulkarni’s skilful electronic prowess as well.

The scene is set well by the artist on this next colourful piece called Meeting Saraswati, now this is a fascinating subject as we can learn that Saraswati is what can be describe as a pan Indian deity, venerated not only in Hinduism but also in Jainism and Buddhism too, this is a full flowing piece, with a hint of mystery entwined within and one of my personal favourites.

Without doubt this album gifts to us some incredibly beautiful compositions, like the utterly handsome The Flower in the Pages, a gentle keyboard piano narrative lays here, whilst offerings like Digital Age offer a more electronic based reality from a virtual future where man meets machine, and this relationship bears musical fruits that are both exciting and rhythmic.

In the deep waters of the album we have Let Me Show You (Redux), a piece that pushes the aforementioned narrative of track 3 further, however when we arrive at the penultimate offering you will also find one of my personal favourite from the album called Painting the Canvas. Here lays one of the brightest and best tracks that in my view Kulkarni has ever created, and one that uses the beautiful vocal talents of singer Akhila Mamandur, as major meets minor and what is created is musical magic, in one of the most sensual pieces from the album, and furthermore, if the artist was ever thinking of releasing a single from the album, I would point him to this very track to do so.

Having started with the prologue, it of course comes to pass that we end with a short form narrative of the Epilogue, a succinct and concise conclusion to what in my view is an outstanding album.

It is always an excellent sign when you are listening to an album and you never want it to end because you are simply enjoying the journey too much, but this is without doubt the case with Indigo by Nitish Kulkarni. Here is an album that floats between many genres and is not afraid to cross them, but to put them all together in a big old melting pot of brilliance, this album is simply sublime and is in my view one of the best global fusion albums I have heard for many a year, and as such should take the charts by storm.