Sameer Gupta has studied Indian classical music and Ross Hammond has delved into a number of Americana and jazz music forms, but forget about East meets West, Upward is above all the acoustic guitar of Hammond meeting the tabla of Gupta.
Friends going back to college, Gupta and Hammond have had a musical meeting of the minds for a number of years, and now they are finally sharing their unique symmetry with the release of this set of improvs (or mostly improvs) on Prescott Records March 14, 2016. But we’ve got an advance taste of their meeting right here.
Above is the video premiere of the title track, and like the name suggests, the song is uplifting, and a holistic meld of rural Appalachia with the Bengali countryside. Ross Hammond makes the twelve strings take on nearly a sitar-like quality as Sameer Gupta sets the loose rhythmic pattern that give this song an undeniable flow. The visual imagery of the video is full of rural scenes including a graveyard visited by a bedsheet ghost wearing headphones.
I haven’t solved that particular mystery yet, but the spiritually soothing music is far from perplexing. It’s a simple pleasure in any culture.
This video was directed by Rob Fatal and is dedicated to Chris Ferreira.
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