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Review

Sense World is a new addition to the growing number of labels dedicated to Indian classical music. Started in 2002 Sense World is based in UK, with a studio in Gujarat. Many of the albums are live concert recordings of the Saptak Music Festival held every year in Ahmedabad, Gujarat every year in winter.

This CD by Shaukat Hussain Khan presents a live recording made at the Saptak Festival 2003. Shaukat Hussain Khan is a leading exponent of Agra Atauli Gharana and popular vocalists of her generation, well known for her unparalleled three and a half octave range.

The CD starts with a short alaap in Raag Chandrakauns, a late night pentatonic raaga. In its scale the only difference with Malkauns is the use of Shudh Nishad instead of komal. The second track is the Bhada Khayal in Vilambit EkTaal - Kaaran tumre balamaa bekal hot shareer, composed by Ustad Atta Hussain Khan who used the pen name Ratan Piya. The exploration of the raaga is well paced ably supported by Sarangi accompaniment of Liaquat Khan. I wish more artists start using Sarangi, instead of Harmonium. By the way, Harmonium is also present and can be heard once in a while. The difference between the two accompaniments (as in instruments, not artists) should convince any sceptics about the desirability of Sarangi.

The third and final track is a chota khayal set to TeenTaal - Mori pakad baiyan naa chhedo ji, composed by Shaukat's father Ustad Sharafat Hussain Khan with the pen name Prem Rang. Shaukat sings the chota khayal with feeling and a lot of variations and sargams making it quite interesting.

Another important note about the CD is that it is not easily playable on your computer, it has been copy protected using Macrovision CDS-300 (Read an older review of CDS-300). You need to acquire a license (which is done online by the CDS media player that comes with the CD) before you can play the CD. After that you can either use the flash media player or play the cd using any media player which accepts Windows Media DRM (like Windows Media Player or RealOne - but on Windows media player, the cd is incorrectly coded as Rupande Shah's !) You can get license from multiple PCs, but you will not be able to play the CD on Linux PC. Also, you may not be able to transfer the songs on to an Apple IPOD. Macrovision was supposed to include Apple's DRM (FairPlay) last year, but I have not seen any news of that yet. Unfortunately, the CD does not in anyway warn about these limitations anywhere on the cover (or inside the cover for that matter).

Overall this is a good buy to get introduced to Shaukat Hussain Khan. 4.0 stars for the music and 4.0 stars for the recording. See the restrictions explained above, before buying the CD.

CD Information

Title	Parveen
Label	Sense World Music
Artists	Vocal : Shaukat Hussain Khan
	Sarangi : Liaquat Khan
	Harmonium : Shishirchandra Bhatt
	Tabla : Vinod Vaishnav
Catalog #	042
Year	Released 2004
Made In	UK
SPARS	N.A.

Tracks

Nu.	Title	Time	Music
1	Alaap - Raag Chandrakauns	3:29
2	Composition - Raag Chandrakauns - Vilambit Ektaal	38:37
3	Composition - Raag Chandrakauns - Teentaal	10:14

Liner Notes

Good liner notes with profile of the artists, the music and even compositions.