This beautiful CD is a great blend of elements - accessible and yet with depth and an edge. I like the contrast of the two pieces - the first lighter the second darker. It's a challenge to fit chord changes in a raga but John Hardesty pulls it off in a rich way that is not over done or smaltzy. Max Dyer's gorgeous emotionally rich cello playing is the glue that ties the voice & keyboard together and bridges the different musical worlds. Nanda Banerjee is a fantastic singer - WOW. Her voice is very unusual. It has an androgynous quality due to the range that she sings in and her age - her voice could be a man's as well. It is rare to hear a female Indian singer in that range - mostly they have that very high range. I really love the cello work in the first part of "Invocation" where the playing is low and dramatic. I feel like the CD really gives the feeling of a collaboration and musicians really listening to each other. Near the end of "Invocation" the cello ventures off into a more Major 7th kind of territory but Nanda seems reluctant to go there and pulls it back to the darker space it was in but then again the cello introduce the more lighter Major 7th cord and she finally comes on board. At first it was a kind of tension that sort of disturbed me but after a few listens I got to appreciate the nature of that dance. And the cover is so beautiful with the mandala by Paul Heussenstamm. Sudhananda