Ragawerk leader and guitarist Max Clouth is the primary driving force behind this album. The compositions presented here are all penned by him and drummer Martin Standke, but it’s Clouth, born in Frankfurt in 1985, who dominates.
Clouth studied jazz guitar at the University of Mainz and the University of Music in Dresden. Then, crucially, he took lessons with Pandit Nayan Ghosh at the Sangit Mahabharati Music School, Mumbai, and the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music in Chennai, studying under Guitar Prasanna (R. Prasanna) the jazz-fusion guitarist and pioneer of guitar-based Carnatic music. Whilst in India Clouth played guitar on the soundtracks to several Hindi-language films.
Clouth plays a custom-made, double-neck electric guitar developed with luthier Philipp Neumann and based on oriental and Indian string instruments such as the oud or the sarod. Since 2011 he’s made a clutch of recordings, some under the moniker Max Clouth Clan, including the single Lucifer Rising / Surrender To What Is (L+R/Bellaphon 2018) with percussionist Sarathy Korwar.
Although Clouth admits a main influence is the Mahavishnu Orchestra, there’s also an underlying resonance with John McLaughlin’s album My Goal’s Beyond (Douglas, 1971) recorded just months before The Inner Mounting Flame (Columbia, 1971). So, whilst there are some high-energy rock-outs, there are also some much more lyrical interludes. Grace-Krpa has a mesmeric quality by virtue of a plangent guitar melody. The Shore has an almost Beatles / ELO feel at times, courtesy of violin and cello accompaniment.
I Promise is characterised by pulsing bass, crackling drums and legato guitar. Rather anomalously from a musical perspective, Theta Wave features the voice of Koel Sen delivering a politically charged diatribe against the Indian authorities. The closer, Mangal, benefits from sultry vocals underpinned by a synthesizer bass line and florid guitar work.
Discography
Ab Yeh Kya?; I Promise; Grace-Krpa; Nature Of The Self; Overlays; Das Modul; Theta Wave; Face In The Sky; The Shore; Mangal (56.31)
Max Clouth (elg); Mehtab Ali Niazi, Abhisek Mallick (sit); Manas Kumar, Hannah Visser (vn); Georg Boeßner (kyb); Peter Puskas (elb); Martin Standke (d, elec); Udhai Mazumdar (tab) and others. No date or location given.
L+R/Bellaphon Records CDLR584020
