The whole song is in D Lydian, fusing elements of Hindustani Classical music and rock. In my exploratory practice session directly after a deliberate practice session with the intent of improvising voicings in D Lydian I stumbled upon a melody. This was around the time of the one year anniversary of my close friend and Indian classical pandit Sanjay Guha’s passing, also his birthday. The Lydian scale / Raga Yaman was one of his favourites and he had written so many compositions, etudes and exercises over many years. Some of which I myself performed as the sole fretless guitarist of London Sitar Ensemble. Indian classical is not typically performed in big ensembles. Normally one lead instrument, percussionist and a drone instrument. In the ensemble we would all play the same lines in unison.
I wanted to include a description of this piece as it was a starting point of sorts, mainly for experimenting and improvising with some of the first voicings I learned from Between the Voicings (2008). I notated the melody and catalogued it to revisit later in a folder labelled musical sketches, this folder over time filled up with numerous musical ideas and sketches. On revisiting the folder I picked this tune to work on, I did not want to follow an Indian classical format for a composition or gat in the traditional sense, but let the melody develop into a piece with my own personal stamp, as a nod to my friend’s teaching and mentorship.
After recording the head and variations I improvised chords to accompany the melody, but everything I played upset the natural flow and energy of the piece, so I decided to only play chords in the solo section, which was open and free. For the solo section there were no predetermined chord changes or harmony, just the text Solos D Lydian written on the page. I afforded myself the freedom to improvise in this section, blending four note voicings, focusing on creating texture and an atmospheric vibe. Towards the end of the solo section I latch onto a repetitive chordal pattern.
