Nikhil Banerjee - Râga Monomanjari - Paris 1975

Le Sitar de Nikhil Banerjee • Râga Monomanjari 
Prestige de la musique extraeuropéenne, l'Inde vol.1
Disques Espêrance - ESP 155530 - P.1976 



Nikhil Banerjee, this time recorded in Paris 1975. I like very much his more contemplative and slower pace while developing the ragas, and this is one time we have to admit that the format of the LP is not ideal. We are left with beautiful music but still feel a little betrayed as it ends so fast. The longer format of the CD is of course better suited and still the LP was such a tremendous leap from the cut up pieces on 78 rpm's that had to extend over several sides. The affection remains because often we can only hear some of the best artists in recordings on older media. Hope you enjoy this record from this french series with a rather quaint and pretentious name but with the most lovely of all psychedelic covers of the seventies. We had a few of them here already, but there will be several more coming later from this series. Hope you enjoy!








Side A

A1 Râga Monomanjari, alap, gat - 23'15
dans le style dhrupad, raga du soir

Side B 

B1 Râga Manj Khamaj, alap, gat - 15'15
dans le style thumri, raga du début de la nuit

B2 Bengal Folk tune - 9'00





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ESP 165506 Le Koto de Yusen Kuzuhara et le Shakuhachi de Teiji Itoh - Vol.3

Prestige de la musique extraeuropéenne - Le Japon - Vol. 3

Le Koto de Yusen Kuzuhara et le Shakuhachi de Teiji Itoh

Disques Espérance - ESP-165.506 P.1978

Face A

A1 Kumoi jishi

A2 Sho-chiku-bai

A3 Shika-no-tohne

Face B

B1 Miyako no haru

Kuzuhara Yuzen, Koto

Itoh Teiji, Shakuhachi

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ESP 165505 - Le Koto de Yusen Kuzuhara - Vol.2 - P.1978

Prestige de la musique extraeuropéenne - Le Japon - Vol. 2

Le Koto de Yusen Kuzuhara

Disques Espêrance - ESP 165.505 - P.1978

Face A

A1 Chidori no kyoku

A2 Rokudan no shirabe

Face B

B1 Adikaze no kyoku

B2 Yachiyo jishi

This is my favourite of the three japanese records in this series , probably because of the singing. Yuzen Kuzuhara hailing from the Yamada school of koto, sings to her own accompaniment.

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Le Koto de Hiromu Handa - Vol.1 - P.1977

Prestige de la musique extraeuropéenne - Le Japon - Vol. 1

Hiromu Handa - Le Koto de…

Disques Espêrance - ESP 155.551 - P.1977

Face A

1 Yumé-no-shinnaï, petite pièce à la manière de shinnai, musique pour shamisen

2 Itsugui-no-komori-uta, berceuse d'Itsugui, village de la région de Kumamoto au Kyûshû

3 Karéi-naru-shirabé, impromptu inspiré par la beauté des kimonos de cérémonie.

4 Sado-Okessa, chant populaire de l'île Sadogashima sur Okéssa, rythme spécifiquement japonais

5 Sandan-chô, piece en trois mouvements

6 Kyo-uta, mélodie avec des refrains nostalgiques

Face B

7 Sakura-kaété-godan, cinq variations sur l'air Sakura (fleur de cerisier)

8 Yoï-matsuri impression musicale au soir de la fête (matsuri) de l'enfence

9 Hônen-matsuri, compositions sur la fête de la moisson. Thème et développements

10 Midaré, œuvre classique composée par Kurabashi-Kengo (mort en 1724)

Hiromu Handa,

半田弘

Born in Osaka in 1934. He began his studies on Shakuhachi when he was six years old with his father who was an amateur musician. At the age of 13 he took up studies in Shamisen and Koto. He participates in numerous concerts and in 1953 he gained considerable appreciation for his composition "The night train" that was praised by enthusiastic critics.

Living

near Tottori, on the Sea of Japan, he devoted himself to research on new techniques of playing the koto, published some of his

research in

an essay entitled "The possibilities of the right hand of the koto player". Performer and composer, Hiromu Handa has enjoyed high esteem in Japan and in foreign countries where he has given many recitals over the years.

I have not been able to find any other recordings by him but there was a constant rumour back in the seventies that he was considered to avantgard and unorthodox with his constant experimenting with plucking techniques for someone insisting to stay in the tradition. I have not been able to find any printed text supporting these rumours and if anyone has any more information on him and his music, please share it in the comments to the post!

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