Exciting cross-rhythms and high-energy colour swirls on Saagara’s third release, called simply 3 (TAK:TIL / GLITTERBEAT GBCD 159).
The Polish composer Waclaw Zimpel has been brushing the brisket with four talented classical musicians from Southern India, playing in the Carnatic tradition; where our Polish genius supplies the electronics and jazzy woodwinds, the team of Udupa, Baba, Raja and Karthik dazzle with an array of traditional instruments. The stodgy word “collaboration” doesn’t really fit here when faced with such invention and infectious delights. Zimpel has been greasing this particular horn since 2015; he comes to us from a varied background in free jazz / improv, minimalist-inspired composition, something referred to as “folk trance”, and solo electronica albums. Indeed it’s even claimed that the Saagara project sprang to life out of a “jam session”, a term which I thought had long been deprecated.
The achievement here feels like something much greater than a run-of-the-mill “East meets West” contrivance, which has plagued recorded music for longer than it should, but I’m at a loss to explain what it might be. My familiarity with Carnatic music is less than minus-zero, but the juice in these grooves comes close to plugging into a universal language. Maybe Zimpel is attempting to reach a condition of “world folk” as he finds rich seams of commonality between free jazz and Carnatic, while continuing to honour traditions and never once settling for kitschy easy listening approximations. John McLaughlin is invoked in name, and it would be nice to think he approves mightily of this significant musical development. (23/09/2024)