Album art for - Brooklyn Raga Massive Terry Riley In C  - by Seema Lisa Pandya 2017

(released onNorthern Spy Records) Brooklyn Raga Massive (BRM), a collective of forward thinking musicians rooted in Indian classical music, released Terry Riley In C recorded live in concert with 18 musicians at Joe’s Pub on January 11, 2017.  BRM’s arrangement of In C incorporates raga, Indian ornamentation, driving tabla rhythms, improvised solos and an instrumentation of sitar, sarod, bansuri, vocals, tabla, hammered dulcimer, oud, violin, cello, upright bass, dragon mouth trumpet, guitar, cajon, riq and frame drum.

Terry Riley composed In C in 1964, but this release marks the first time it has been performed and recorded by a group featuring so many Indian classical musicians and raga elements. The design of the album art compliments the composition of the piece with a basic structure consists of 53 cells of music for any instrumentation, short fragments that each performer repeats, displaces and moves through at their own will. The result is an organically woven cacophony of sound patterns and rhythms overlapped with layers of improvisation with the repetitive grounding of the tabla. The piece is 70 minutes long preformed by an orchestra of 18 musicians.