March 08, 2013

A German band called Ghetto Raga...


"The name is taken from the second track "Ghetto Raga" on the first 1969 album by british THIRD EAR BAND "Alchemy" and also is program: instruments usually played in classical music playing free improvisations fenced in by simple and monotonous hand drum rhythms - usually just one ongoing hypnotic rhythm per piece. Glen Sweeney, mastermind and drummer of TEB, later called their pieces "electric ragas"".

Thomas Zunk

Here's the description German musician & advantgarde composer Thomas Zunk uses to describe his music on his Soundcloud profile (https://soundcloud.com/ghetto-raga and https://soundcloud.com/ghetto-raga-2), a miner of experimental music with clear references to the Third Ear Band's poetics...
His Berlin based free improvising project called Ghetto Raga started in  1993 and through various different line-ups he recorded very interesting tracks with the intention of creating a synthesis between freely improvised music and the classical gamelan styles of Indonesia. Ghetto Raga's pieces sometimes evoke spherical, metallic landscapes; some others position hypnotically pulsating, monotone grooves under a virtuoso violin. 

As usual, listen to these tracks and make a your opinion about the real connections with Glen Sweeney/Paul Minns' music... 



no©2013 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first) 

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