This album is unusual because it is Indian classical music arranged and played by a Westerner, although his name is not on the front cover.
Mayer is accompanied by another Westerner on bandura, an Indian on second sitar, and an unnamed musician on tablas.
Mayer's technique seems to owe something to the Spanish and electric guitars, especially in the percussiveness of his strumming. His improvisations are perhaps not as complex as those of someone more steeped in the Indian traditions, but they have the virtue of being short and more intelligible to untrained Western ears than the usual stuff. This disc might not be 100 percent authentic, but it would be an excellent place to get one's first exposure to the art of the raga. ~ Kurt Keefner