Cantaloupe Music Releases EVENING LIGHT: RAGA CYCLE

Cantaloupe Music has released EVENING LIGHT: RAGA CYCLE I, a new album by composer and pianist Michael Harrison and vocalist Ina Filip. The release coincides with the spring equinox and launches an eight-album series based on the Indian raga time cycle.

The album centers on ragas traditionally associated with early evening, including Yaman and Bhupali, and blends elements of Indian classical music with minimalist piano, layered vocals, and electroacoustic textures. Harrison performs on a just intonation piano, a tuning system designed to create pure harmonic intervals, while Filip’s vocal work draws on the Dhrupad tradition and contemporary compositional techniques.

Additional musicians featured on the recording include Elliot Cole on synthesizer, Benoit Rolland on electroacoustics, and tabla players Mir Naqibul Islam and Shawn Mativetsky.

The album includes seven tracks: “Water Jhala,” “Angelim Tree,” “Evening Light,” “Woven Sky,” “Tarana Counterpoint,” “Mahadev,” and “Désancrage.”

Harrison, who has studied Indian classical music for more than four decades, has previously released works including SEVEN SACRED NAMES and TIME LOOPS, and has collaborated with ensembles such as Roomful of Teeth. Filip, a Brazilian-born vocalist based in Québec, has developed a practice that combines raga-based vocal techniques with contemporary composition and improvisation.

EVENING LIGHT: RAGA CYCLE I is the first in a planned series of recordings, each corresponding to a different time of day and exploring distinct musical and emotional atmospheres within the raga tradition.