Chandra

2015 release. Jazzland Recordings is proud to present a perfect marriage of tradition and modernity, both eastern and western. Bansal Trio, led by Harpreet Bansal (violin) and featuring Vojtěch Prochzka (piano) and Andreas Bratlie (percussion) present Chandra. Bansal herself has had an outstanding career to date, working with many outstanding performers in both eastern (Ustad Sharif Khan, Tariq Khan and Sukhvinder Singh Namdari) and western (Unni Lvlid, Poing, The Source, Per Oddvar Johansen and Nils Olav Johansen) musical traditions. Her expressive, technically elegant style joyfully traverses boundaries of genre and historical tradition with graceful ease. Vojtěch Prochzka also has a fine pedigree as one of the foremost young Czech pianists, and a CV that includes Ivar Grydeland, Per Oddvar Johansen, Kari Rnnekleiv and Espen Reinertsen. Andreas Bratlie is a drummer and percussionist who has quietly forged his career, and has worked with many artists, notably Andreas Ljones, Bertine Zetlitz, Mira Craig and Noora Noor. On this recording, he also brings elements of voice alongside his superb table and percussion work. The music exposes varied moods of light and shade, serenity through to agitation, and a degree of hinted spirituality amid urban humdrum automatism. The extended piece, Bhairavi, is a traditional piece arranged and interpreted by the group, stands as a monolithic center piece, both in scale and variation, while the rest of the album features various meditations upon traditional pieces, as well as three original compositions.