Sound Record

Ustad Vilayat Khan and Gangubai Hangal among others.

“The idea was to create an archive of truly great music that bows neither to commercial pressures nor audience tastes. It is this music that tends to get ‘lost’ and it is this music that we need to preserve,” says DB Biswas,Joint

Executive Director,NCPA. The archive houses a collection of rare 78 rpm records,which have been cleaned and restored,apart from recordings of live performances by visiting orchestras,chamber groups and solo recitalists,which will be released later this year by Sony Music. “The recordings contain some unheard ragas from an array of artistes who recorded these at the prime of their careers,” says Sridhar Subramaniam,Managing Director,Sony BMG. He adds that there were several challenges,including that of tracing the artistes to pay them royalty. “We had to sign contracts before the albums were released,” he says.

Among others,the series includes Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s rendition of the Hemavati raga and Pandit Jasraj singing raga Din Ki Puriya. The archive also has some unique recordings of Indian folk music groups captured in the field,which will be released later. “For now,we have only released studio recordings. Later,we plan to release the live recordings that are present in the archives — these are recordings of live concerts since the 1970s,” says Biswas.