Solo Sitar - Raag Bhairavi: A Raag Played at Dawn of the Morning
About Solo Sitar - Raag Bhairavi: A Raag Played at Dawn of the Morning
\"Solo Sitar - Raag Bhairavi: A Raag Played at Dawn of the Morning\" is a track from the 1996 collaborative album Meeting of Angels. The composition features sitarist Nishat Khan accompanied by the early music ensemble Gilles Binchois. The piece presents a rendition of Raag Bhairavi, a classical Indian raga traditionally performed in the early morning hours. The track spans 6 minutes and 48 seconds and appears as the sixth entry on the album.
The album Meeting of Angels was released on CD by the Italian label Amiata Records in 1996. The project explores the fusion of North Indian classical music with medieval and Renaissance European traditions, blending Khan’s sitar improvisations with the vocal and instrumental textures of Gilles Binchois. The ensemble, directed by Dominique Vellard, specializes in historically informed performances of Western sacred music, while Khan represents the Imdadkhani gharana (school) of sitar playing, known for its intricate gayaki ang (vocal-style) phrasing.
The track’s structure adheres to the alaap-jor-jhala framework typical of raga exposition, though specific compositional details beyond the raga’s melodic outline remain undocumented in available sources. The recording captures Khan’s use of meend (glissando) and gamak (ornamentation) to evoke the contemplative mood associated with Bhairavi. The accompanying ensemble provides a subdued harmonic foundation, though the extent of their arrangement adaptations for this collaboration is not explicitly described in public records.
Meeting of Angels received attention for its cross-cultural experimentation, though critical reception and commercial performance data are not widely archived. The album’s liner notes, where available, emphasize the shared spiritual themes between Sufi and Christian mystical traditions, framing the music as a dialogue between Eastern and Western devotional forms. No subsequent live performances or reissues of this specific track have been confirmed in published sources.