Raga Unison | Indian Slide Guitar & Guitar | Debasis Chakroborty & Giuliano Modarelli | Edinburgh

Pandit Debasis Chakroborty (Indian slide guitar) and Giuliano Modarelli (acoustic guitar) performed together at the Raga Unison: Wind, Drums and Strings concert at Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, on 16 November 2025. Ustad Shahbaz Hussain provided tabla accompaniment. The set formed the second half of a double-bill evening presented by KalaSudha.

The raga performed is Kirwani: a late-night raga of solemn character, built on a symmetrical scale that mirrors the harmonic minor. Its aroha and avroh share identical intervallic structure across both tetrachords, giving it an unusual balance between Indian classical gravity and a quality familiar to Western ears. On slide guitar, Kirwani's minor intervals find particular resonance: the glissando technique draws out its characteristic phrases (g m P, d P), sustaining the pathos (Karuna rasa) that defines the raga.

Chakroborty's slide guitar carries the raga's voice through the Alap and develops it alongside Modarelli's acoustic guitar, which responds within the raga's framework, retaining its own character. Ustad Shahbaz Hussain's tabla marks rhythm and texture without crowding the melodic exchange. The pairing of Indian classical slide guitar and acoustic guitar in a shared raga structure is rare in live performance; this set at Edinburgh shows both instruments meeting in Kirwani's symmetry.