Vilayat Khan: Music from India [ASD-498] (1962)

Here is a delightful set by Vilayat Khan on sitar and Imrat Khan on surbahar. Tabla is by Shanta Prasad. It is a UK reissue of a previously released LP. As EMI helpfully notes on the back, it is "another 'Music of the World' LP."

side 1:
Raga Miya Ki Malhar

side 2:
Tabla solo in Tin-Tal
Raga Miya Ki Todi [alap only]
Raga Piloo (Thumree)

Older spellings have been kept, despite my reluctance. I believe what EMI was trying to say was that the third piece on side 2 is a Thumri which is in Raga Piloo.

My sources tell me that Imrat Khan is living in St Louis, MO, of all places.

Not much to say in particular about this one, except for the hard (and at times clumsy) R/L stereo mix which makes headphone listening less appealing, as well as an unusually large amount of low-frequency noises which were probably caused by musician movements. I thought about using EQ to reduce these noises, but finally decided that the end user can do that if s/he wants.

Equipment used in transfer: 

Preparation: Ultrasonic cleaning for 20 minutes in water, followed by a quick vacuum drying with a VPI 16.5 cleaning machine

Turntable:  Audio-technica AT-LP-1240

Cartridge: Shure M97x
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.

Recorder: Edirol R-09HR at 24bit/44.1kHz resolution

Software: Audacity to normalize and carefully remove multiple clicks per side. No change in EQ was made. Conversion to 16/44.1 took place in Audacity. xAct was used to convert to FLAC and mp3. So-called "noise removal" was avoided in order to best preserve the dynamic nuances and tone quality of the original sound.

[ASD 498] Music from India (1962) 320 kbps mp3

[ASD 498] Music from India (1962) 16bit 44.1kHz FLAC

[ASD 498] Music from India (1962) 24bit 44.1kHz FLAC