Sitrance – Sitar Fusion By Bijaya Vaidya

Know the Artist:

Bijaya Vaidya is an acclaimed and most traveled musician of Nepal at present. Since the last two decades he has been intensely performing and promoting Nepali music through his Sitar playing and musical skills.
His recent Awatar also as a Soul Engineer (teachings under the guidance of his spiritual friend and guru, Louis Bertignac – the legendary Guitar-Hero of France) proves Bijaya to be a person of immense diversity.
Bijaya has helped in the foundation of musical groups at home and abroad like Sur Sudha. Bijaya wants Nepali music in the global map and for that he wants to train many Nepali musicians and help establish their own cultural and social identity.
Though his formal studies remains purely on Eastem Classical Music and Sitar for which he had earned a Board-Second position in his Bachelor’s Degree from a music academy in India, he has broken the barrier of the traditional outlook of just being an instrumentalist.
When I contemplate inside my studio with Sitar at hand, I already feel a new form of sound being created in my imaginations,” says the smiling Bijay who is time and often interrupted for a Tabala duet by his two-year old son Chitiz Dev who has picked up the first basics – Dha Dha!
Bijaya’s home-studio ensemble comprises of his wife Marina (a good singer herself), his lively old parents, his doggy pets Rocky and Sierra and their puppy. His productions are managed by a group of three brothers – Yogesh, Rakesh and Jasmine.

Recording Artists:

* Bijaya Vaidya – Sitar, Tanpura

( Arranger, composition. recording & Mixing)
* Rabin Lal Shrestha Tabla #1,6 & 8)
* Rajendra Karna – Khin (Traditional Newari drum) Tabala #2 & 3, Dholak #3 Dabuka # 2.
* Gopal Dev – Flute #5
* Sasindra Raj Bhandari – Guitar
* Salil Kanika – Didgeridoo
* Rubin Kumar Shrestha – Flute # 2 & 3
* Album Composed, Arranged. Recorded, Mixed by: Bijaya Vaidya
* Loops and Sampling by: Bijaya Vaidya
* Track 4 (Dizzz) is an improvised composition by Salil and Rabindra with Bijaya Vaidya’s concept.

Production Concept and Management – Yogesh

Songs & Meanings:

1.Aaran: Aran is the workshop of the ironsmiths A sporadic movement created with the primal sound of the Didgeridoo, Sitar and Tabala – the beat not in a ‘garage wood to sway you alive morning, day and night.

2.Just: Bijaya compose this music all of sudden that’s why it is little just.

3.Bhang: Dancing feelings after heaving a Ghotta.

4.Zitar: Candlelight, Sitar and Steel Guitar. An unplugged live studio-improvisation evolved during a monsoon power-cut at the Mokshya Ghar. While the whole of the city was dipped in the dark, Zitar was being recorded thus using the mini-disc. This unique fusion of sitar and guitar is therefore named Zitar.

5.Malaya kite: A blend of Nepali Bamboo Flute. Indonesian Bells and Sitar creating a simple harmonic music with Asian flavor. Takes you for a gentle flight through the Asia of your imaginations.

6.Dizzz: A live studio improvisation and duet of Didgeridoo and Tabla. While it rained outside, the two musicians were absorbed in trance inside the sweaty studio. Carries the theme of a full-moon night in Kathmandu.

7.Na Na Na Na—: Dark atmospheric fusion creating a Tabala Taranga using the ‘Na Gives a deeper sense of existence in the dark realm.

8.Ragum: A birth of a new genre of Raga from this little mud-house Mokshya studio. Ragum has established its own identity in the whole of the eastern classical music world. This unique style of classical raga establishes Bijaya and his Sitar playing-style as a new ‘Gharuna’ (tradition).