Innova Recordings promotes, as the label puts it,
“forward-looking (-hearing?) work that pushes and challenges the boundaries of
contemporary music.” The innovation doesn’t stop there. The composer/performer
and the company collaborate on an equal footing, with the artist bearing the
financial risk. Yet it’s more complicated than a self-publishing model, because
Innova—a nonprofit label—is selective and works closely with artists, sharing
its business and musical expertise to bring out professionally slick albums.
Two recent examples: Into the Raga and Quiet Forest, Flowing Stream.
The first CD features Nirmala Rajasekar (veena), Raghavendra Rao
(violin), Tanjore Murugaboopathi (mridangam) and V. Suresh (ghatam). Its longest
track, ‘Ananda Nadamaduvar,’ celebrates the dance of Shiva while the other
pieces range from a Carnatic composition (‘Jaya Jaya’) based on a 14th-century
South Indian work, to a Hindustani composition (‘Mayi Re Mei Tho Liyo’),
inspired by one of Mirabai’s poems. The 10-track album ends with a thrilling
‘Thillana.’
A recipient of the Bush Artist Fellowship and the McKnight
Fellowship for Performing Artists, Rajasekar has performed widely for three
decades. She also plays the veena on the second CD, Quiet Forest, Flowing
Stream, which is a cross-cultural project featuring the works of Gao Hong, who
plays the pipa. Rajasekar provides vocals for some of the pieces, and
instrumental support comes from Joseph Schad (piano), Shubhendra Rao (sitar),
Biplab Bhattacharya (tabla), Michelle Kinney (cello), Kenny Endo (taiko) and
David Hagedorn (percussion). Hong’s younger daughter, who had battled and
overcome leukemia, inspired the compositions, and the album was made in her
honor.
Hong “draws from the fretted, four-string instrument an aural
tapestry of delicate and reflective moods that arc from fanciful musings to
tempestuous torment,” according to Pulse magazine.