1. Ascent
2. Flight
3. Attachment
4. DSH
5. Gaanamurthi
6. Mohana
7. Pallavi (Mohana)
8. Kedaragowla
9. Kaveri
10. Paavanaguru
11. Lost Tales

Prasant Radhakrishnan: Tenor Saxophone;
David Ewell: Bass
Sameer Gupta: Drums
All original compositions, except #10. Arrangements by Radhakrishnan/Ewell/Gupta.

Produced by Lotus Music ©2008
Recorded at NI Recording, on December 11 & 12, 2007
Mixed by Sebastien Richard, Mastered by Michael Romanowski.

 
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"VidyA's music breathes at the very center of a cultural crossroads between the North American jazz idiom and the Carnatic music of South India. VidyA's music is a new vein of North American music... present tense, present location, new culture in the making." -Todd Brown, Red Poppy Art House

"…when these patterns are played on saxophone, violin, string bass, and jazz drums, there is a build-up of emotional energy and intellectual complexity which seems to recreate the energy that was present at the birth of bebop in 1940s New York. In fact, if Charlie Parker or Dizzie Gillespie had heard VidyA at that time, I think it would have never have occurred to them that VidyA’s music was Indian. They would simply have wondered where these cats had found a sound that was so mercilessly free of the standard melodic and rhythmic clichés.” -Teed Rockwell, India Currents

"A style that's madly percussive and sparkling… combines jazz's sweet dreaminess with the Indian form's insistent rhythmic and tonal changes.” – SF Weekly

"Imagine ragas and American blues folded into a single moment. It's a fusion of Indian classical and jazz, and the leader, Prasant Radhakrishnan, 24, points the way for a number of Bay Area improvisers.” - San Francisco Chronicle, “Year in Jazz”

About VidyA

VidyA is an adventurous new group that merges the virtuosity of Jazz with the melodic and rhythmic nuance of South Indian classical (Carnatic) music. Led by critically-acclaimed saxophonist, Prasant Radhakrishnan along with David Ewell (bass) and Sameer Gupta (Drums), VidyA has emerged with a soulful, penetrating sound that pushes the labels of "fusion" or "world music."

These three artists have an almost telepathic interplay, incorporating the forward motion of both Indian Classical and jazz rhythms while elaborating Carnatic ragas infused with melodic richness. The group weaves in and out of the two genres while all the time merging them into one. VidyA translates the language of Carnatic music into the idiom of Jazz.

VidyA's debut CD features eleven compositions from their extremely successful live repertoire, crafted from performing artist residencies and live performances over the past two years. Encompassing deep forays into Indian Classical ragas and jazz sensibilities, constantly building rhythmic and melodic intensity while always playing from the soul, VidyA's album brings the depth of their live performance to a studio album.