3

Description

The new album by Saagara, 3, is the third installment of this acclaimed collaboration between Polish producer/multi-instrumentalist Waclaw Zimpel and four virtuoso musicians from the Carnatic musical tradition of South India: percussionists Giridhar Udupa (ghatam), Aggu Baba (khanjira), and K Raja (thavil), as well as violinist Mysore N. Karthik. It is a droning juxtaposition of dense Indian rhythms and pulsating electronic motifs. An album of deeply transformative compositions that navigate between tradition and experimentation, heading toward the universal. On 3, the music is not as contemplative as on the two previous albums. Acidic post-club electronic sounds now counterpoint the traditional instruments, and the instruments themselves are filtered through contemporary treatments. Saagara's new album brings the ancient ritual of Carnatic music—a music that transports the listener from one state to another—into a dance with electronic music and its techniques, rhythms, and syntheses.