Call of the Valley

Nice little album for a Sunday. Definitely relaxing. Not something I would choose of my own accord but skillful and well-made.

Дефолтна езотерична музика на сітарі. Взагалі хз що тут сказати, таке або подобається або ні. Мені - ні.

Really made me feel like I should be herding ship in the Himalayas.

Yeah this isn't for me. The music is made well enough, but I'm not connecting with it at all, sorry.

Hard to find, but very relaxing different.

My first thought when reading the Wikipedia article on this album was "I wonder if this is in the common cultural sphere of Indians, considering how influential it was outside the country." It so happens my neighbor is Indian, and when I asked him about it, he'd never heard of it or the musicians. So, that's kind of a bust there. I mean, it is a HUGE and very diverse country, so it's probably not all that surprising.

As far as the album goes I'm actually VERY MUCH enjoying it. It's reminds me of the sound of ambient electronic music, but with traditional Indian instruments. It's going have to take a serious turn for the worse to keep me from adding this to my personal collection. I'll probably spin this a couple more times today

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Turns out I was listening to the wrong version like everyone else. Listening to the correct version, I definitely like this less.

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So there are multiple versions to this, apparently, and I'm listening to yet another one, that I *think* is the right one? This is getting confusing and shitty, and I feel frustrated that I (and the rest of us) may be listening to and rating various incorrect (or not the original) versions of this album.

I think I need to tap out here. I've listened to three half-albums over the last two hours, and I just can't do anymore. I might have to come back to this.

⭐⭐⭐? Who knows? Were any of the albums I listened to the right one?

I'd never ever go out of my way to go look for Hindustani classical music, but it's a hella relaxing listen.

I listened to the YouTube version and I enjoyed it. I wish YT would let me do other things on my phone while I have a video playing, but I understand that capitalism requires my uncompromised attention.
I don't have many notes here because I don't have much experience with Indian music. I could see myself owning this, but there are other "world music" records I would buy first.

Don't really see what other people see in this one. It's hypnotic for sure and really novel for the time, but it doesn't really differ that much from other Classical Hindi albums and I find it kind of boring. The entire piece gets to be a bit weary and tiresome. Ravi Shankar does more interesting stuff on his albums and preceeded this album by a decade or so. The fake out with the streaming version of this album done by other people is a big fuck you move as well.

I would have loved to listen to this album. But as mentioned many times before, Spotify links to the wrong album. I can’t find the right one there. On YouTube, the listening experience is very limited because of the ads. That’s why I’ve only heard parts of the album. It’s a shame, because what I heard seemed quite interesting. So, unfortunately, I can’t say anything specific about the music. 3/5

Stunningly pretty

In short, this is the best-selling album of classical Indian music, recorded by three local masters. Traditional Indian santoor and bansoori are mixed here with flute and slide guitar.

In the mid-1960s, many Western rock musicians began experimenting with Eastern music, which eventually led to psychedelia. For the thus-warmed American and European public, this sound, on the one hand, was nothing new; on the other, only Indians could play their music so authentically. Word of mouth about the album was also helped by reviews from "advanced users": David Crosby, Bob Dylan, and, of course, George Harrison.

Pleasant, contemplative melodies, equally suitable for work, for starting the day, or simply for gazing at the sunset. After listening to it once, I automatically turned it on again.

Så bara för att Harrison och McCartney gillade att knarka måste jag lyssna på det här.
Nåja, det finns någonting här av värde. Inte minst som inspiration till spiritual jazz från Alice Coltrane till dagens favoriter i Work money death. Problemet är väl att det bara blir ande och ingen jazz på Call of the valley.

Trying to track this thing down, I noticed this artist just pumps this shit out constantly.

Worse, he now uses AI for his albums, which is insane, given this album cover's beauty.

1.5

After eventually finding what i think is the right album on Youtube, this all felt a bit background music for me. The exception was track 3 which had a bit more energy and grabbed the attention more.
Track 4’s percussion reminded me of the Beatles Within You Without You, but not in a positive way

I didn't enjoy this. I feel a bit uncomfortable saying that about a non-western artist, but that's silly really, as I don't enjoy specific genres (death metal for example) and wouldn't worry about stating my thoughts on that, so why would it be different for Hindustani classical music?

I don't like the droning sound that punctuated a lot of this, and something about that, plus the syncopated rhythms that were happening, made me feel really anxious at points. Something that this album and certain trance/dance albums have weirdly in common.

I would like a 1.5 star, as it's not close to the album I've enjoyed least during this project, but if I were to give it 2, that would be way overselling my enjoyment. I fully accept this was influential, but I did not like it. So a 1 it is.

1/5

Спасибо, но нет

As a European, I find it difficult to judge traditional Indian music fairly, simply because I’m not familiar enough with comparable music. I can say, however, that I really enjoyed listening to Shivkumar Sharma’s “Call of the Valley”—especially since I was in the mood for peace and meditation this morning. That this album was well-received worldwide upon its release, I would nevertheless attribute more to the spirit of the times than to any extraordinary quality of the music. The instrumental pieces simply tell a little story that you can follow if you already know what it’s about (a shepherd’s day in Kashmir). Of course, something like this exists in all cultures—Europeans probably think first of either Camille Saint-Saëns’s "The Carnival of the Animals" or Sergei Prokofiev’s "Peter and the Wolf". Should one be familiar with these? For one’s own culture: certainly. Otherwise: I don’t know.

Dazzling.