Sitar Secrets

If it's Indian classical music you're looking for, you'll want to look elsewhere. However, unlike the many Western dilettantes who have picked up the sitar over the years, Al Gromer Khan doesn't just approach the instrument as an exotic novelty or a facile way to hint at spiritual depth. On the unfortunately titled Sitar Secrets he creates original compositions that refer to classical forms without being bound by them, and that convey a sense of contemplative wonder without pretending to any goal more transcendent than that. The opening track bears the wry (one hopes) title "I Got Vilayat Khan's Blessing" and features what is either a very convincing synthesized vocal track or an uncredited female singer who breathily accompanies his gently meandering sitar and sparse hand percussion. Two sections of "Raga Ahir Bhairav" are given a quite traditional treatment, with tabla and hand drums, but "PB's Bombay Club" is quiet, spare, and rather eerie, an impressionistic cloud of very soft percussion with faint intrusions of sitar. "Caru Caru" combines sitar with Bill Nelson-style synthesizer washes, to very pretty effect. It's very difficult to carry off this sort of project without succumbing either to cultural condescension or vapid new ageyness, and Al Gromer Khan's achievement on this album is very impressive.