By Nick Ostrum
Mohini is not what I usually listen to. Stylistically,
it sits outside my normal comfort zone of familiarity. Still, I should escape
those confines from time to time. Sudeshna
Bhattacharya and Mosin Khan Kawa present such an opportunity.
Bhattacharya is a master of the nineteen-string sarod. Born
in India, she has toured Europe extensively and currently resides in Norway.
Kawa is likewise from India but, much as his partner in this duo, has spent the
last decade or two in Europe, as a sort of itinerant ambassador of the tabla.
Despite their time especially in Norway and Farnce, Mohini
(named after the feminine incarnation of Krishna) is sheer Indian
improvisation without clear references to western traditions of free jazz, free
improv, be-bop, rock, or classical. That does not make it any “purer,” of
course, but it does make it somewhat stylistically foreign, at least to my ears.
Still, it is improvisation, and beautiful improvisation at that. It seems
Bhattacharya and Kawa are riffing on short melodies and scales to which Bhattacharya
frequently returns. In that, it resembles blues and more tightly organized
forms of jazz, but in the fact of organization rather than its realization.
That said, I can shake the impression that some of this still
sounds familiar. I hear affinities with banjo music and elements that evoke the
long, ominous glissando in the Doors’ The End. I hear the endless build (think
the barber pole illusion) that likely inspired Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, the
Coltranes, and others to study the music of the subcontinent and adapt them
into their own extended, modular pieces. I hear incredible communication
between these Bhattacharya and Khan Kawa, mastery of their instruments, expert
knowledge of whatever musical tradition they are operating in.
I do not know whether Mohini will shock those with
more exposure to this type of music. However, I can say that to me it is thoroughly
compelling and surprisingly moving. What is more, it shows yet another side of
improvisation and the ways in which structures – a lack of absolute freedom –
assist in creating something both novel and timeless. I am not sure this music
had to be made in 2025 rather than a generation or two earlier, though the
recording is certainly pristine. Although this sounds like Indian classical
music, it shreds the virtuosic sterility that the term “classical” sometimes
connotes in western circles. Mohini sounds quite vital.
Seek this one out.
Your ears will thank you.