Search - M Path :: Meeting Rivers

For openers on Meeting Rivers, there's a hoedown of sorts, a hip cross-pollination of cheerful, contemporary grooves and a spirited sitar. Next comes "Strange World," with its laconic, offbeat choir and its unlikely India-meets-the-Tropics vibe, then another groove-based meander through pockets of jazz flute, light chanting, and Indian instrumentation. Meeting Rivers, clearly, marks the confluence of many diverse elements, a colorful, largely upbeat musical mishmash that might be best described as world-pop fusion, but who really knows? M Path, the group name assumed by two musician-producers, Gardner Cole and Mitchell Markus, also involve a circle of friends that includes sarangi master Ramesh Mishra. Though not every piece works, the mostly instrumental project smartly weaves Indian instruments into rhythmic Western musical textures to yield such cross-cultural flings as "Om Mani," a dreamily propulsive piece (also the disc's best track), and "Jagad Ma," a slightly warped, Indian-flavored romp for guitar and violin. The disc concludes with a mod, earnest raga ("The Longing"), one last quirk on a loose-knit, off-center yet accessible recording. --Terry Wood