Lehra (Sarangi) - Kala Festival 2025

Satwinder Pal Singh opens the album with a solo lehra on sarangi, the repeating melodic phrase that maps each beat of the rhythmic cycle. In a tabla solo the lehra does the timekeeping: it gives the soloist a fixed frame to play against and gives you a reference point for every variation that follows. This short statement lets the sarangi present that frame on its own before Ustad Akram Khan joins.

The four tracks that follow build on this foundation: the Peshkar, Kaida and Rela in Rupak Taal, then the closing Chakradar in Teental. The lehra runs under all of them, so this opening track hands you the key to the whole recording.