Ganesh Anandan and Patrick Graham are two percussionists involved with the Montreal world music and avant-garde music scenes -- Anandan as an improviser, Graham as a contemporary music percussionist. In the fall of 2003, the pair appeared on Robert Marcel Lepage's album La Machine à Explorer le Tempo. Anandan had released his first album for the label Ambiances Magnétiques, Speaking in Tongues, two or three months earlier, and this self-released duo CD followed it shortly. Imaginaria is a beautiful exercise in making percussion instruments sing. The two players focus on hand percussion: bodhran, frame drums, and all kinds of blocks, bowls, and bells. They also make vocal percussion, like in "Thakita," a thrilling opener that immediately catches your attention and sends a rhythmic current from your ears through your spine and to your feet. Some pieces are more textural or free-form, but the beat is never far. Each percussionist gets a solo number ("Neputa" for Graham, "Permutations No. 3" for Anandan). It isn't specified if these are real-time performances of if they involve overdubs, but both musicians get very busy. Three tracks feature guest musicians, which introduces a certain variety -- not that the album absolutely needed it -- that people less fond of percussion will probably appreciate. In "Five Sounds," Takinojo Michozuki contributes vocals and Japanese hand drum, and Kohei Nishikawa adds his air-borne flutes to the improvisation. Rainer Wiens' prepared guitar is heard in "Underwater," and violinist Oliver Schroer gives "Alap & Yellow Mala" a surprising jazz fusion feel. Delicately performed on what sounds like Chinese temple bowls, "Enfance" answers "Lullaby" from Speaking in Tongues and brings the album to a gentle stop. The musicality in GaPa's pieces almost eclipses the duo's virtuosity.
© François Couture /TiVo