Dagar Brothers Berlin 1964: The Lost Studio Recording Import LP

Following on from 2023's acclaimed Vrindavan 1982 by rudra veena master Z.M. Dagar, Black Truffle presents a pair of archival releases from the Dagar Brothers, among the most revered 20th-century exponents of the ancient North Indian dhrupad tradition. The vocal duo of Moinuddin and Aminuddin Dagar (sometimes referred to as the "senior" Dagar Brothers to distinguish them from their younger siblings, Zahiruddin and Faiyazuddin Dagar), belonged to the nineteenth generation of a family of musicians in which dhrupad tradition has been kept alive through patrilinear transmission, each generation undergoing a rigorous education of many years' duration that can include singing up to twelve hours each day. Famed for the meditative purity of their approach to dhrupad, the Dagar Brothers helped to keep the tradition alive in the years after Indian independence in 1947.

Many Western listeners were first introduced to dhrupad by the Dagar Brothers' tour of Europe in 1964-65 and their LP in UNESCO's Musical Anthology of the Orient collection, both organized by pioneering musicologist and scholar of Indian culture Alain Daniélou. Documents from this tour are especially precious, as Moinuddin Dagar passed away in 1966. Berlin 1964: The Lost Studio Recording presents two unheard side-long performances in crystalline fidelity, recorded at the International Institute for Comparative Studies and Documentation in Berlin headed by Alain Daniélou. These stunning recordings were consigned to the archive because, as Peter Pannke explains in his liner notes, which recount his meeting with Daniélou many years after these recordings were made, the tape ran out during "Raga Jaijaivanti," which terminates abruptly soon after the entry of the pakhawaj.

Accompanied only by Moinuddin's wife Saiyur on tanpura and Raja Chatrapati Singh on pakhawaj, the brothers present stunning performances of the severe, serious midnight "Raga Malkauns," set to a ten-beat cycle once the pakhawaj enters, and the complex early evening "Raga Jaijaivanti," set to a fourteen-beat cycle in its rhythmic section. Illustrated with a striking full-color concert photograph, Berlin 1964: The Lost Studio Recording is accompanied by extensive liner notes by Peter Pannke celebrating musicologist Alain Daniélou, whose study, documentation and promotion of dhrupad was so important for spreading awareness of this great musical tradition, ready to be discovered anew in this stunning recording from two of its master exponents.