Occasional Overtones:

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solo releases - - - - - - - Masala - - - - - - - Babylon Bicycle

Late Sunday afternoon, 4th July 1999:
I go downstairs to play some music. 2 hours later the notes still keep coming and the tapes keep rolling. It’s getting dark but I don’t want to turn on the light and change the mood. Finally I run out of tape. I keep sitting in silence. What was all that? What did I play? I feel I’ve just returned from a walk through an enchanted forest. I go to bed.
Over the next few weeks I listen back to the tapes and add a few sounds that remind me of that feeling that night. Maybe I heard them in my mind then. Although there are distinct beginnings and endings of musical movements they all appear closely related. I decide to keep them together. Here they are. Hope you like them!

The guitar and sitar featured on this CD were originally recorded on audio tape to utilise audio compression. Pickups and two microphones were used to capture the characteristics of the sound. The track were then transferred to digital recording equipment using minimal EQ to preserve the overtones and harmonies. The additional sounds were recorded digitally.

1) Musical Box   8:42
2) Shimmering Light   7:45
3) Slide 4 Miles 4:26  
4) How Far Is East   7:02
5) Done This B4   7:19   mp3   
6) Mathnawi   3:58   mp3  
7) Last Rays Through Leaves  5:28
8) The Long Drive At Dusk   21:46

A HolyCow Production

One aim of my music is to raise the listeners awareness to the fact that musical taste is acquired and conditioned. While some habits are deeply ingrained others might be a choice. By blurring the boundaries between styles and sounds the categorisation becomes a tiring process and the mind gives up. I like to think my music promotes appreciation and respect for other cultures.

A spicy mix of eastern and western sounds and styles. Be mesmerised!

1) Raise Your Head  4:07   mp3
2) Loving Strangers   6:34
3) Sabe Sankara   6:27
4) Rasa Leela   5:02   mp3
5) Dance of the Dragonfly   5:53   mp3
6) Thumri   6:56   mp3
7) Da Pacem Cordium   4:46
8) Kaharwa   5:28   mp3
9) Leaves   4:24
10) Light on a Lily   5:51

HolyCow productions 2000

Soundscapes of an island:

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Eleven tracks dedicated to areas around Tasmania aiming to evoce the feeling those places emanate.
With these recordings Astra expresses his reverence for the island - the place he chose as a second home,
An engaging collection of instrumentals.

one
two   mp3
three   mp3
four   mp3
five   mp3
six
seven   
eight
nine
ten   mp3
eleven    

HolyCow productions 2001

Across Boundaries

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Masala share a fascination for blending sounds and styles. The recordings on this CD pay tribute to the Gypsies and the Celts who essentially influenced today’s music as we know it. With connections reaching as far as India they have contributed to genres like Jazz, Swing, Folk or Country while keeping their own style. The pieces on this CD are therefore not easily assigned to one or another style but communicates the freedom that music can offer to the listener.
Please note: This CD is now out of print. However the idea lives on and some of these tracks apeared remixed on 'Silkroad Sermons'.

1) Crossing Boundaries 2:20                                      MASALA are:
2) St Crispens Well 2:13   mp3                              Roman Astra: Vocals, Sitar, Indian Violin, Lute, Synths
3) Seraiglion Dance  3:20                                           David Cleaver: Nylon-string Guitar
4) Pacavaj 5:40                                                         Jules Witek: Percussion
5) White Mountain Mist 3:07
6) Handa Dani 6:07
7) The Eilish Jigg 5:30 
8) Felix the Faun 3:09
9) Autumn Walk 4:33   
11) The Colour of Sound 4:48
10) From Feeling to Thought 8:49   mp3   mp3

... and here is a live track of Seraiglion Dance  mp3

HolyCow productions 2001

Rhythm and Raga

Masala are Roman Astra (sitar, esraj), Nigel Hope (six string bass) and Jules Witek (acoustic and electronic percussion). This CD released in 2007 comprises music created for the "Ten Days on the Island" arts festival in Tasmania 2007. Astra comments of their spontaneous performance style 'You can't step into the same river twice'.

1) Passage to Pamir
2) Ismasmim Sati
3) The Fisher Folks
4) Vayathama Sankara
5) Killer
6) Fluttering Veil
7) Follow Me
8) Simon and the Snake
9) Ionosphere
10) Zanubea's Stick Dance

This CD can be purchased from Indie-CDs.com. Audio samples of some of the above music are also available there.

Years of Light:

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The featured Sitar, Guitar or Guisitar were recorded in a trance-like state called 'Alpha'. It is the state you are in just before you fall asleep or during deep relaxation. The brain is then dominated by Alpha waves. You are consciously between the inner and outer realm and you can look both ways. I use this state to record music that I want to be intentionless. The pieces on this CD therefore lend themselves to meditation.

1) To be here   10:31   mp3
2) Now   6:52
3) Years of Light    8:40   mp3
4) Between Thoughts   10:42
5) Cosmic Debris    10:31   mp3
6) Flotsam & Jetsam   11:57   mp3
7) Call of the Bell   0:22

HolyCow productions 2002

Live at the ABC

Astra interviewed
by Tim Cox and performing live
16 Nov 2001

Interview extracts:
1) the sitar
2) the tuning
3) the raga
4) the strings
5) the band

Music clips (mp3 format):
1) Raise Your Head #1
2) Raise Your Head #2
3) Handa Dani #1
4) Handa Dani #2
5) Handa Dani #3

Babylon Bicycle:

Babylon Bicycle demonstrates how to cross cultural and language barriers. With their musical vechicle, Astra and Witek create a style of their own by combining the rich textures of sitar, lute, indian violin and vocals with many kinds of percussion instruments. 
"Music is a language in itself", explains Astra. Following this philosophy Babylon Bicycle have allowed their hearts to do the thinking and tell their hands what to play.

1) Ismasmim Sati   7:23   mp3
2) Pipanandra   4:29   mp3
3) Sampadetha Ti   6:34
4) 3 Angles to a story   5:47    mp3
5) Samsara   9:31   mp3
6) Simon and the snake   7:01
7) Meeting at the Tigris   4:22   mp3
8) Mesopotamia   8:56
9) Sa Sasa Ra   6:19

HolyCow productions 2003

Sitar Lounge:
(2003)

Inspired by the furniture in Hobart’s ‘Kaos Café’, where Maxwell Smart meets Shirley Bassey, this is music to chill out to. The laid back grooves are based on loops syncopatimg with bass and synths. This hypnotic mix is accompanied by Sitar and Indian Violin which do the rest to enchant your lazy afternoon with a Sapphire Bombay Gin & Tonic … or maybe you are having Ginger tea?

Here are five samples from the CD:
mp3   mp3   mp3   mp3   mp3   

HolyCow productions 2005

Silk Road Sermons:
(2004)

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Inspired by research for a recital on the Silk Road I put down some melodies. After reading about war and peace, flourishing and decaying civilizations, generous leaders and cruel tyrants I wasn’t sure anymore what to think about humans and their ways. Soon it came to me that it’s always been the common person, ploughing the fields, milking the cows and raising children, that held it all together. I felt a weird mix of compassion, trust and hope and aspired to preserve those emotions, which are captured within the initial recordings. The recital was well received at the National Folk Festival 2005 and I was invited back the following year.

  1)  Crossing Boundaries  2:59
  2)  Sabe Sankara  5:36
  3)  Seraglion Dance  3:18   mp3
  4)  Pacavaj  5:29
  5)  Handa Dani  6:07   mp3
  6)  The Spice within  3:32
  7)  Spice Traders  3:50
  8)  Nava Rasa  4:14   mp3
  9)  Da Pacem Cordium  4:51
10) The Ruins of Jiaohei   5:35   mp3
11) The Colour of Sound  4:48
12) bonus: Feeling to Thought (live 23.05.2004)  5:10

HolyCow productions 2004

CHILL FAKTOR 3  is the latest project of multi instrumentalist Roman Astra.
To realise the sound of his latest CD ‘Sitar Lounge’ live on stage he requested the support of Nicolas and Damien Stolp.
Nicolas’ bass and the programmed rhythm loops build a solid base on which Damien’s psychedelic guitar and Astra’s sitar are free to explore all possible combinations of sounds.
‘After a few sessions we thought we’d better go along with what’s emerging, rather than trying to re-create my songs on stage’, admits Astra. ’We all bring our own language to the project’, add Nicolas and Damien. ‘While weaving our ideas in with the others we get inspired by what comes back,’
All recordings are realised and recorded on the spot with a bit of tidying up afterwards. ‘Yep, there was a bit of laughing to cut out’, explains Astra.
‘It’s been a lot of fun!’

1) slo cruze
2) hyperdraw    mp3
3) chillfaktor3    mp3
4) sultry sutra
5) sleeper    mp3
6) far cry