We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Nagamani

from Nagamani by Michael Robinson

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Nagamani via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 199 Michael Robinson releases available on Bandcamp and save 10%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Dark Is the Sky, Passion Eyes, Above the World, Soul To Soul, A Thousand Things, Summer Skies, Across the Sands, Summer Kisses, and 191 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $1,000 USD or more (10% OFF)

     

about

I had been planning the music for Nagamani for at least six months, putting it aside while I composed the four compositions found on Lunar Mansions and Luminous Realms. The challenge I was readying myself for was to compose a one-hour alap (no jor or jhala) with sustained musical interest. When I was finally ready to begin, the actual composing and programming took about three weeks. It turns out that the swaras (tones) I used are identical to an obscure South Indian raga, Nagamani, which translates to mean jeweled snake or cobra. But that was after the fact. My actual musical inspiration came from Hariprasad Chaurasia, the Indian bansuri master who has raised the art of flute playing to previously unimaginable levels.

Realizing that some degree of contrast would be necessary for such an extended piece, I decided to set-off the main voice, a Near Eastern kawala timbre, with the gentle struck-wood sound of an African balafon, slightly punctuated with a Japanese hyoshigi, a wooden percussion instrument. Together they swim within the prominent expanse of male (low) and female (high) Indian tanpuras.

While listening to Nagamani, following the composition and realization phases, a thought came that the kawala was a Tibetan mother mourning the loss of her child (and a threatened culture?), and the balafon was the spirit of the departed child naively attempting to comfort the abandoned mother. Soon afterwards, the poem, Oil and Blood, by William Butler Yeats, came to mind. Here are the opening lines:

In tombs of gold and lapis lazuli
Bodies of holy men and woman exude
Miraculous oil, odour of violet.

- Michael Robinson, July 1998, Beverly Hills

© 1998 Michael Robinson All rights reserved

credits

from Nagamani, track released July 11, 1998

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Michael Robinson Los Angeles, California

"Very nice - swings good! It's great doing the whole thing yourself. I just go in and play, and the rest is out of my hands." (Lee Konitz)

"He has amazing success bringing to life music performed by a computer." (Dean Suzuki, SFSU)

"No telling where he's going to spin off to, but he's an original." (Village VOICE)

"Michael Robinson makes great music." (Pandit Jasraj)
... more

contact / help

Contact Michael Robinson

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Report this track or account

If you like Michael Robinson, you may also like: