Karma

This 3rd album by Jim Petit is the fruit of long and profound work on the slide guitar, and on music in general, work began almost twenty years ago when Jim chose the slide guitar as his means of artistic expression.

The music in this new album was composed with the rhythmic cycles of classical Indian music (tâlas). Then comes the melody and musical modes that Jim ellaborates from the melodic frame of North Indian râgas. Once the spine of his composition is established, he procedes to the arrangements, orchestration, and sound exploration.

His music can be defined as the musical meeting of Ravi Shankar and Pink Floyd, passing through Jim Petit and his slide guitars.

He doesn’t seek to copy what has already been done, but to present his own music, original and unique, seeking to express his artistic vision of life.

Karma is a concept album, issued from the artist’s reflections on the life of a soul, before and during its birth in the human body, around the main piece “Dreams of a concerting birth”, a composition for slide guitars, symphony orchestra, and choir.

The album opens with the piece “La voko de la vento” (The call of the wind), which is a metaphor of the soul’s perception before its meeting with the human body, the wind being the vehicle that transports “the great evening of creation”. The melodic frame is based on raag Khamaj (Mixolydian mode), an evening râga. The rhythmic cycle is an 8-beat cycle (bhajan taal).

“Dreams of a concerting birth” is a 35-minute instrumental piece in 19 movements based on his idea of birth. This composition invites the listener to feel the interior and exterior sensorial perceptions, like a foetus in its mother’s belly.

Definitions:
Dream: idea, picture of someone sleeping
Birth: coming into the world of a living being
Concerting: in classical music, a type of exclusively instrumental music

The movements:
Movement 1: The soul’s choice – Alaap in raag bilawal
Movement 2: Life’s emission
Movement 3: In the park after the avatar
Movement 4: Life’s awareness
Movement 5: All the things he will do
Movement 6: Floating in a peaceful place – Raag yaman in madhya keharva taal
Movement 7: All the things I will do
Movement 8: The parent’s fear
Movement 9: Still floating in a peaceful place
Movement 10: Contraction – is the baby alive?
Movement 11: Hands’ sprouting
Movement 12: Hush, my child – Raag yaman in vilembit jhumra taal
Movement 13: Things are coming…
Movement 14: Final contractions
Movement 15: The labour is on
Movement 16: Just a little break before delivery
Movement 17: Breathe
Movement 18: A new human being is born
Movement 19: Loosen up

“Karma” is the concluding piece of this eponymic album. It is based on raag Bilawal (Ionian mode), a morning râga with an 8-beat rhythmic cycle. Here we are at the dawn of life, the question of karma, of the continuity of a cycle.

Musicians participating in this album:
:
-Jim Petit : Hindustani acoustic and electric slide guitars, weissenborn, electric guitar, modular synths, programmation and vocals
-Olivier Dieterlen : drums
-Udai Mazumdar : tabla and vocals
-Elise Humbert : cello
-David Husser : bass and electric guitar
-Kalevi Uibo : gelectric guitar
-Piero Raglianti : bass drum
-Sebastien Eidenschenck : bass
-Chanteval choir lead by Nicolas Husser
-EMVK choir lead by Sandrine Stöhr
-Jean-Jacques Futterer and Frederic Unterfinger : symphonic programming

Recorded from March to July 2014
Studios: Le Bonhomme Studio (Le Bonhomme, Haut Rhin), David Husser (Durrenentzen, Haut Rhin), Renaud Hebinger (Pfaffstatt, Haut Rhin)
Sound engineers: Sébastien Eidenschenck, David Husser Production,
mixing: David Husser
Mastering: Renaud Hebinger

CD Graphic conception : Jean Wollenschneider
Photos: Benoît Facchi