Rag Alhaiya Bilaval

Ajmer is a studio album by sitarist Imrat Khan, released on January 1, 1991 under the Water Lily Acoustics label. The recording features a single long-form performance in the Rag Alhaiya Bilaval tradition of Hindustani classical music. The album was issued in CD format and comprises one track with a duration of 27 minutes and 36 seconds.

Imrat Khan performs the raga on a sitar, accompanied by an unspecified tanpura drone and tabla percussion. The composition follows the alaap-jor-jhala structure characteristic of dhrupad-influenced instrumental renditions, progressing through slow elaboration to faster rhythmic sections. The recording captures Khan’s use of meend (glissando) and gamak (ornamentation) techniques, central to the Imdadkhani gharana style he represented.

The album title Ajmer references the city in Rajasthan, though the specific connection to the music or recording context remains undocumented in available sources. Water Lily Acoustics, known for high-fidelity recordings of Indian classical music, produced the album with an emphasis on natural acoustic capture. No additional session musicians, producers, or recording locations are credited in the primary release metadata.

Rag Alhaiya Bilaval belongs to the Bilaval thaat and is traditionally performed in the late morning. Khan’s interpretation adheres to the raga’s shuddha (pure) scale structure, omitting the komal ni (flattened seventh) and emphasizing phrases that resolve to the shadj (tonic). The performance concludes with a drut (fast) section in teental (16-beat cycle), a common rhythmic framework for North Indian classical music.

Critical reception and commercial performance details for Ajmer are not widely archived. The album serves as a representative example of Imrat Khan’s late-career work, following his contributions to the Maihar gharana and his collaborations with brother Vilayat Khan. The 1991 release date places it among Water Lily Acoustics’ early catalog of Indian classical recordings distributed internationally.