Recorded at Darbar Festival 2017

Musicians:
- Pandit Ram Kumar Mallick (Darbhanga dhrupad)
- Samit Mallick (Darbhanga dhrupad)
- Surdarshan Chana (Jori)
- Seetal Dhadyalla (tanpura)
- Keertan Reha (tanpura)

Raag Bhairav; Thaat: Bhairav; Samay: Morning

We are excited to release the Director's Cut for Pandit Ram Kumar Mallick and Samit Mallick's glowing and extraordinary rendition of dhrupad at the Darbar Festival 2017.

The Darbhanga tradition of dhrupad gayaki combines melody, rhythm and poetry to create a powerful style. It follows two schools of dhrupad syllables - the Khandarvani and Gauharvani that synthesize the poetry and melody into an astounding interpretation of dhrupad through intense rhythmic elaboration. Pandit Ram Kumar Mallick and Samit Mallick are leading exponents of this gharana. In this Director’s Cut concert, they present two morning ragas – Lalit and Bhairav.

Lalit is elaborated with a patient alap that gradually reveals its texture, first in the lower octave and then unfolds one note at a time over the middle octave. With a combination of Khandarvani and Gauharvani syllables, a linear pulse is introduced wherein, ample emphasis is laid on the lower tetra chord - the hot-bed on which Lalit unfurls its wings for flight. The pulse quickens, introducing the jod.

Pandit Mallick’s voice has a husky charm which couples with Samit’s energy and groove to lay out an intricate design of the jhalla in Darbhanga style. Their crisp delivery of the syllables along with heavy-set and meend-based gamaks build the rendition into an intense, condensed body that embodies the raga, technique and soul in apposite measures.

Bhairav, is first expanded , only this time, they stick to brevity and let go of the jhalla in the introductory section. The composition in a 10-beat cycle of Sool taal is conditioned with stately delivery of lyrics in buoyant gamaks over a primordial edifice of pure notes and dramatic delivery.

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