Bhairavi Raman and Nanthesh Sivarajah’s Syncretic is a sublime, spiritual release on Efficient Space. Something that rivals the imprint’s essential 2018 reissue of Waak Waak Djungi’s Waak Waak ga Min Min. 

Both musicians are of Tamil heritage and classically trained in their respective instruments: Raman, the violin, and Sivarajah, the mridangam, an ancient clay hand drum.* The duo’s music takes Carnatic ragas, themselves evolved from sacred Hindu poems and texts, and adds an often subtle, modern, western twist. 

Raman’s beautifully bowed strings emit symphonic drones and virtuoso lead flights. The latter expanding, reaching out from loops of cyclical repetition. On Elemental these vibrations are multitracked, buzzing and subjected to psychedelic phasing, while the main melody slowly appears, dramatic, cinematic, suggesting it has a story, secrets, to tell. Awakening, appropriately, is the perfect score for stretching, yawning, greeting a new day, and a wonderful world, beatific before the bustle. Guardian recalls the epic, emotive orchestral compositions of soundtrack composer A.R. Rahman. The playing rapid, yet the air still. Creating a real sense of tension. Sivarajah’s percussion is the star of Thunbam Nergayil. Lively, dancing, marking a shift in the mood, from mediation to celebration. Summoning sunshine and blue, peaceful skies. 

Together the pair keep tradition alive by mixing it with contemporary influences. A cool case in point, is the album’s closer, Kindling. The set up to this point proceeds like a ritual, a ceremony – mentally cleansing and spirt-lifting – its south Indian roots ever present. However, the track in question is a sort of stately, court music waltz. A fusion which seems to have come from another country, continent. Another place in time.

*The mridangam is traditionally made of clay, but modern versions like Nanthesh’s are wood, with the heads made from goat, cow or buffalo.

Bhairavi Raman & Nanthesh Sivarajah’s Syncretic can be ordered directly from Efficient Space.