Michael Robinson: Dhani (Azure Miles Records)

Azure Miles Records has released over 50 albums featuring Michael Robinson's computer-generated performances of compositions inspired by world music traditions to date, each packaged with a beautifully-designed cover on hand-silkscreened mulberry tree paper from Japan, India or Tibet. His latest release is a realization and performance lasting nearly 3 1/2 hours, divided onto a total of 4 CDs.

Based on the pentatonic Hindustani Raga Dhani, which features a minor third and a minor seventh along with a perfect fourth and perfect fifth, Robinson's Dhani (2003) is arguably the longest-ever pentatonic composition. Following the structure of a North Indian classical instrumental performance, the raga is divided into Alap, Jor & Jhala and 3 Gats.

In the Alap, which takes up the first 2 CDs, Dhani is introduced in a slowly unfolding exposition across a wide range of registers and timbres by the Indian bansri, including instrumental tone colors atypical to Indian music such as the Balinese jegogan.

For the Jor and Jhala, on the third CD, Dhani transfoms to a clarinet timbre moving beyond its traditional pitch range, and gains rhythmic momentum eventually climaxing in rapid ascending and descending cascades that would never be possible for a traditional human clarinetist to perform.

The climatic Three Gats, on the fourth CD, is melodically voiced for European/American trumpet and Hungarian/Gypsy cimbalom with Persian/Armenian/Turkish kemanche projecting rhythms, phrases and transcendent tals of Hindustani and Karnatic tabla, dholak, dhol and ghatam encompassing complex polyrhythms scored for skin, wood and metal percussion instruments from Africa, South America, Cuba, Middle Eastern, China, Korea, India, Japan and Indonesia.

- NewMusicBox (2004)