Indian artist performing at Roskilde Festival
Today, Lakha Khan, an Indian musician, is performing a set of Morning Ragas at Roskilde Festival, Denmark’s biggest music festival. Last year, he received the Padma Shri Award, one of the highest civilian awards in India for the arts and music. He has contributed greatly to Rajasthani and Multani folk and Sufi music.
A raga is a unique and central feature of traditional Indian music. It is an improvisation based upon a set framework of notes and how to play them. The morning ragas are always played in the morning – as a result we rarely get to hear these ragas at concerts. However, the Gods must be woken up in the morning so that they can look over the festival-goers all day long and enjoy the music.
If you are at Roskilde, head to the Mantra stage at 10am, to get awakened by soothing and calming interpretations of the Indian songbook, presenting both bhajans (Hindu devotional songs) and Sufi kalams (Musilm devotional songs) from some of the greatest poets of the 16th, 17th and 18th century.
Madou Sidiki Diabate, The Indian Express
