Awakening | Raag Bhairavi | Pt. Debasis Chakroborty | Slide Guitar Live at Hoxton | KalaSudha

Pandit Debasis Chakroborty, a Pandit of the Senia-Maihar Gharana, performed on the Indian slide guitar at Kala Festival's East meet West evening at Hoxton Hall, London, on 17 September 2025. He was joined on tabla by Ustad Akram Khan, a seventh-generation master of the Ajrara gharana.

Raag Bhairavi belongs to the Bhairavi thaat and uses all four komal swaras (komal Re, Ga, Dha, and Ni), with Madhyam as the vadi. Its sampurna scale and meend-heavy phrasing, particularly the glide between Ga and Re, give the raga a quality of open, sustained sorrow that shifts toward calm. Though assigned to the early morning hours, Bhairavi closes a concert by convention.

On the slide guitar, Chakroborty draws the characteristic Bhairavi glissandi across three octaves without the attack of a fret. Each phrase from the komal Ga bends down to Re and holds, the string's sustain extending the phrase beyond what a vocalist would hold. Akram Khan's tabla keeps a spare rhythmic frame beneath, giving the melody space to resolve at its own pace. The 4K recording at Hoxton Hall captures the acoustic of the room and the interplay between the two musicians across an eight-minute arc.