guitar alapana from REINHERITANCE by Varun Rangaswamy

It may seem strange to call this piece an "alapana." After all, an alapana is a free melodic improvisation in a specific raga. But as I improvised by striking my guitar with a rubber mallet, I found myself mirroring my Karnatak improvisational impulses yet again. I improvise out of time over a drone-like ostinato, allowing myself to find phrases within the lack of grid-like structure, at once refusing the grid-like structure. There is a push and pull, an urge to relinquish into the loving gravity of the drone combined with a longing to be free from it.

I am an improviser-composer and scholar. My work, which has been performed across North America and Europe, focuses on fragmentary identities within a single body. My self-reflexive debut album REINHERITANCE has been praised for “creating a mesmerizing circular dialect” (I Care If You Listen).

varunrangaswamy.com