Roman Astra – Silk Road Sermons

$27.00

The new cd, Silk Road Sermons, from Roman Astra. Sitar, Guitar, Indian violin and Lute go hand in hand here with Middle Eastern percussion and the Indian style of ‘Narara’ singing. These melodies are inspired by Astra’s research for a recital on the ‘Silk Road’ for the NFF 2005. Blending Eastern and Western, ethnic and contemporary sounds and styles he demonstrates how easily music can cross cultural and geographical barriers

CD REVIEW – by Ian Dearden

This album is a tour-de-force by Roman Astra, who has composed all the music (mainly instrumentals), plays the bulk of the instruments (sitar, esraj, guisitar, guitar & synthesisers) and sings.

I thoroughly enjoyed this album.

My only quibble was that I wanted to know more, and neither the CD notes, nor the website (romanastra.id.au) were of any assistance.

The music is essentially programmatic ie it is intended in some way to reflect a journey through the Silk Road (incidentally, one of the world’s oldest and most historically significant trade routes between Europe through central Asia to China). However, the connection of individual pieces of music to aspects of the Silk Road is not always clear, and Roman sings in a language which I don’t understand and for which there are neither lyrics, translations nor explanations on the CD.

Being a muso at heart, I would love to have known more about the instruments (which, by the way, Roman plays superbly). I can guess what a guisitar is, but how/where/when did Roman’s hybrid come about, and how is it played?
Thanks to Google and Wikipedia, I was able to find about more about the esraj (a bowed instrument from India similar to a sitar).
I’d love to know so much more.

Back to the music – peaceful, thoughtful and meditative, it leads the listener on a journey which is rich and rewarding.  Keep up the good work, Roman, but tell us more about what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how you are doing it.
Don’t hide your light under a bushel!

4 in stock (can be backordered)

SKU: TN491-44 Category:

Additional information

Weight .200 kg
Dimensions 22 × 16 × .50 cm