Pop CDs of the week: Laura Veirs and more
(Filed: 27/08/2005)

Laura Veirs
Eric Clapton
Rihanna
McFly
Part 2
Chad VanGaalen
Craig David
Marta Topferova
Purbayan Chatterjee and Shashank
Ralph Sutton and Dick Cary
Eric Bogle

World

Purbayan Chatterjee and Shashank
Rasayana
Sense, £13.99

Leicester is a long way from the traditional centres of Indian classical music, but the city's Sense label is currently producing far and away the best CDs in this field - and they have a whole stable of formidably gifted younger artists. Following on from Radio 3 Award-winning vocal prodigy Kaushiki Chakrabarty, youthful sitar master Purbayan Chatterjee could be the next Sense artist to garner international attention.

While Chatterjee follows the Persian-influenced north Indian Hindustani tradition made famous by Ravi Shankar, 27-year-old flute phenomenon Shashank represents the older Carnatic tradition of southern India. If the peculiarities of the two schools may be beyond the casual listener, the combination of the airy and the sinuously metallic is immediately arresting, and the players' speed, virtuosity and mercurial invention are nothing short of astounding.

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