Search - Deben Bhattacharya :: Temple Music from Tibet

Traditional tibetan prayer chants

Doc Dave | New York City | 10/29/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This CD contains recordings by musicologist Deben Bhattacharya made throughout the Himalayas in the 1970s. All recordings were done in the monasteries as the ceremonies occurred with portable equipment; unlike studio recordings in other cds(perhaps why it was titled as "temple music").



The pros of this are that the tracks are all authentic and heartfelt.



Cons, however, the recording, transfer and mastering do not do justice to the chants, vocals are muddied, and muffled, drumbeats are dulled, trumpets sound flat, and the transitions are somewhat awkward since these are select excerpts from long continuous ceremonies instead of being recorded on-demand; though the enchanting horns and bells both come out reasonably well.



From the linear notes, Mr Battacharya was obviously a purist who was completely aware of these tradeoffs; he wanted the recordings to be live so as not to "disembody" and isolate the music from its context. This is an admirable goal that must be taken into account.



Bottomline: An authentic well-intentioned documentary cd, but sound quality is indeed compromised, may benefit from remastering but the source is probably the issue. As a Tibetan person once said to me, there is no such thing as a good tibetan cd, they are all sacred."