"A singular Sufi seduction" - NPR
The first album on the Amarrass label - The Manganiyar Seduction, is a live album featuring Rajasthani folk and Sufi music, with over 40 musicians from the Manganiyar community of western India.
The Manganiyars are a caste of singers and instrumentalists from the desert state of Rajasthan and their ecstatic music-making presents a mix of Muslim and Hindu traditions.
Conceived by the Indian director Roysten Abel, this 70-minute theatrical presentation features 38 musicians, all men in turbans and robes, who sit or kneel in red-draped cubicles, stacked in four tiers and illuminated when their occupants perform, an arrangement inspired by the red-light district of Amsterdam.
The album is available in high quality 180gram double LP (RTI pressing, mastered by Kevin Gray), CD and MP3 formats online and at select stores.
The group has performed to audiences worldwide including the Lincoln Center in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., WOMAD and The Barbican in UK, and The Sydney Opera House in Australia. The group is on a 9 show US tour in Oct-Nov 2013.