Recorded at Darbar Festival 2023, on 27th October, at Milton Court, Barbican, London.

Musicians:
- Jyoti Hegde (Rudra Veena)
- Surdarshan Chana (Jori)

Raag Basant; Thaat: Bhairavi; Samay: Midnight

Dhrupad is the foremost improvisational classical system from India, rooted in its micro tonal slow to fast development. The primal sounds of the rudra veena comes alive in the hands of Hegde as she micro bends the raga (melody) notes. One of the slowest forms of Indian classical music styles, allow yourself to be absorbed in a world of micro bending notes transporting you into a meditative state of being. Popularity of the rudra veena, one of the oldest instruments of India, is dying as audiences are seduced by ‘weak and frothy music’ as described by Rabindranath Tagore. Today there is no compromise – just the pure art form. Hegde returns to London after her 2014 debut concert to play at the Darbar Festival. She is sensitively accompanied on the jori by Chana, one of the senior players of the form.

It is said that Lord Shiva created the rudra veena, with its two resonator gourds, representing the breasts of Saraswati, the goddess of arts and learning, and that the long tube as the human spine and cosmic axis. The length of the fretted area of the tube is traditionally given as nine fists—the distance from the navel to the top of the skull.