For this improvised session recorded live to two track in February 1992, guitarist
Warren Cuccurullo and violinist
Shankar seem to have had in mind the kind of ambient recordings
Brian Eno and Robert Fripp made in the 1970s. Certainly, anyone who liked their No Pussyfooting or Evening Star will feel right at home listening to The Blue, with its sustained, shimmering guitar work; pulsing double-violin playing; and
Shankar's heavily echoed, wordless vocalizing. The music is often very pretty and has a Middle Eastern or Indian flavor. There are song titles, but no real songs in the conventional sense. As long as the potential listener does not pick this up thinking it is going to bear some resemblance to
Cuccurullo's work with
Frank Zappa,
Missing Persons, or
Duran Duran and expects instead an album of instrumental ambient music, he or she will not be disappointed. ~ William Ruhlmann