Heritage Records are set to release the third instalment in their ongoing appraisal of composer Naresh Sohal. This double album, which will be released on Friday February 13, focusses on vocal and instrumental music, featuring works drawn mainly from the composer’s output in the 1970s. They are, argues Heritage Records, some of the most interesting works of the period but, above all, they showcase Sohal’s individuality and unique musical, philosophical, and cultural perspective.
The record showcases Sohal's experimentation with avant-gardism as well as his profound philosophical insights in his settings of Tagore's poems, bringing Indian ideologies into the Western musical tradition. The recordings feature among many talented soloists, the London Sinfonietta, Northern Brass Ensemble, The Nash Ensemble, English Chamber Orchestra, and the Ambrosian Singers.
You can order the double album now through Presto Music and buy or stream it in full from Friday.
Full tracklist:
Night’s Poet
Poems of Tagore 2
Kavita 1
Inscape
The Unsung Song
Surya
Aalaykhyam 1
Aalaykhyam 2
Hexad
Chiaroscuro 1
Foray
In his liner note, composer Utsyo Chakravorty writes of the vocal works:
These works reveal an artist for whom melody is essence, not ornament—a way of revealing mystery, evoking longing, and affirming transcendence. Through the human voice, Sohal built bridges between East and West, modernist rigour and timeless lyricism, the everyday and the eternal.
