Their India – Inspiration From Abroad (1956-99)

Indian ragas are considered something natural. Some Hindus even regard music itself as a means to enlightenment. In the 20th century, the subcontinent attracted many avantgarde artists and musicians from the counterculture, especially from the USA, Europe and Japan – most of them searching for answers to spiritual questions or with the desire to leave something behind.

56-minute mix with Alice Coltrane, Coil with Lori Carson, Psycho Baba, Sun Ra And His Arkestra and others.

Featured cover art: Deuter – Aum

Playlist

Sun Ra And His Arkestra – India

Mystic rhythms in an ancient exotica style. (1956, El Saturn Records / Re: Sun Ra LLC)

Alice Coltrane – Sita Ram

Recorded in Alice Coltrane’s hometown of New York City after a trip to India, the multi-instrumentalist expresses her spirituality with the album Universal Consciousness. A year later, she converted to Hinduism. (1971, Impulse!)

Angus MacLise, Tony Conrad, Jack Smith – S.O.S.

Haunting tambura drone piece from one of the many sessions recorded by the three New York City based avantgarde artists. (ca. 1968, Boo-Hooray)

Bill Laswell, Coil, Janet Rienstra, Lori Carson – Kála

Coil’s music is enriched by Bill Laswell’s field-recordings from India’s spiritual capital Varanasi and Lori Carson’s vocals. (1997, Sub Rosa)

Jim Mulins, Mark Ewdy – Like, Preview Time

The sitar and tabla are ubiquitous in the US counterculture of the 1960s, as exemplified in the low-budget film Psychedelic Sex Kicks about free love and the drug-fuelled hippie underground scene in San Francisco. (1967, Modern Harmonic)

Deuter – Soham

The self-taught German musician combines acoustic and electronic elements with ethnic instruments and natural sounds. (1972, Kuckuck)

The Residents – Om Is Where the Art Is

From the band’s first demo tape, which was sent anonymously to Warner Brothers – and rejected for lack of commercial appeal. (1971, New Ralph Too)

Psycho Baba – Tablovedubla (exc.)

Between 1999 and 2003, the Japanese group led by drummer and jill-of-all-trades Yoshimi (OOIOO, Boredoms, …) and sitar player Yoshidadaikiti explored Indian musical traditions in a psychedelic way. (1999, Japan Overseas)