Rajna Swaminathan: Rajas at Roulette

About

Mrudangam (South Indian percussion) artist and composer Rajna Swaminathan founded the ensemble RAJAS, which finds its namesake in the Sanskrit ‘rajas,’ referring to the inner energy that compels us toward action, creation, and change. The ensemble embodies this spirit in their exploration of new collective possibilities in the resonances among Indian music, jazz/creative music, and other improvisational traditions. The group will play a combination of new material and music from Rajna’s debut record with the ensemble, Of Agency and Abstraction (Biophilia Records, 2019). The Financial Times describes Rajna’s compositions for the ensemble as having “wedded beauty by courting chaos, with the methods of loose-knit latter-day jazz at the service of a recognizably South-Asian melody and pulse.”