About Innovative Music Meeting
Innovative Music Meeting is a collaborative studio album by sitarist Rajesh Mehta, cellist Rohan de Saram and mridangam artist Trichy Sankaran. The recording emerged from an improvisational music project commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. The artists combined North and South Indian classical traditions with contemporary avant-garde techniques.
The album released in 2000 on CD under the Haus der Kulturen der Welt label. The release coincided with a live performance event held the same year, though specific event dates beyond the album’s publication remain undocumented. The work comprises 12 tracks, blending raga-based structures with experimental composition.
Notable tracks include Shiva’s House, a rhythmic exploration anchored by Sankaran’s mridangam patterns, and Trichy’s Rap, a percussive piece featuring spoken-word elements. Ceylonese Funeral March incorporates Sri Lankan folk motifs, while the Bhava series (Bhava 1, Bhava 2, Bhava 3) develops thematic variations across the album. Partial Differentials and Asymptotes reflect the trio’s engagement with mathematical concepts in improvisation. The closing track, Bardo, references Tibetan Buddhist transitional states through extended instrumental interplay.
The recording process emphasized real-time interaction, with Mehta’s sitar and de Saram’s cello often layered over Sankaran’s polyrhythmic frameworks. The album’s liner notes credit the artists for composition and arrangement, though no external producers or engineers are listed. Critical reception from the period highlights the fusion of classical Indian forms with Western experimental practices, though detailed reviews or commercial performance data are not widely archived.
As of the available context, no reissues, remasters or alternate editions of Innovative Music Meeting have been documented. The original CD remains the sole official release format.