About Ragas Hem Bihag & Shyam Kalyan
Ragas Hem Bihag & Shyam Kalyan is a studio album by sitarist Aashish Khan and tabla player Indraneel Bhattacharya. The recording features two North Indian classical ragas performed in the dhrupad-ang and khayal-ang gayaki styles adapted for instrumental rendition. Navras Records released the album on compact disc in 1997.
The album comprises three tracks. The opening composition explores Raga Hem Bihag, a creation attributed to Acharya Allauddin Khan, the founder of the Maihar gharana. The performance begins with an alap that develops the raga’s melodic framework, followed by a jor section that introduces rhythmic pulse without fixed meter. The remaining two tracks present Raga Shyam Kalyan. The second track features a gat in teental, a 16-beat cycle, while the third track accelerates into a drut gat (fast composition) in the same tala.
Aashish Khan performs on sitar, employing the etawa baj technique associated with the Maihar-Imdadkhani tradition. Indraneel Bhattacharya accompanies on tabla, providing rhythmic support and improvisational dialogue. The recording captures a live-studio interaction, though specific session details remain undocumented. The album reflects the collaborative interplay between the artists, emphasizing the structural and emotive dimensions of the selected ragas.
The release date aligns with the 1997 publication by Navras Records, a label specializing in Indian classical music. No reissues or alternate formats have been confirmed. The track titles reference traditional compositional forms, with the Hem Bihag piece explicitly credited to Allauddin Khan’s legacy. Further contextual information about the recording location, production personnel, or liner notes is not publicly available.