The Raga Cycle, Palace Theatre, Paris 1972

Pandit Pran Nath's nationally broadcast performances on All India Radio made him a widely recognized figure in India in the middle of the 20th century. He also attracted the attention of a number of forward-thinking American composers, including La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Henry Flynt, who'd grown tired of the strictures of the Western classical tradition. In the early '70s, Young and Riley arranged for Pran Nath to give a series of performances outside of India, including this mesmerizing date at Paris’ Palace Theatre. Young, Riley, and Marian Zazeela accompany Pran Nath on tabla and tambouras, but the focus here is clearly on Pran Nath’s transcendent vocal performances. Pran Nath was primarily a student of the Kirana vocal tradition, which placed a great emphasis on glacial tempos and the expressive potential of individual notes. But the long-form, expansive ragas of The Raga Cycle embrace a vast array of the subcontinent’s musical traditions, including the ecstatic devotional singing styles of Sufi mystics and the one-note devotional drones that Pran Nath perfected while living as an ascetic in the caves of Tapkeshwar.