Antigravity — The Indian Group, 1990-1991

Here are the pieces which make up the first Antigravity CD, released as “Antigravity — The Music of Warren Senders” (Accurate AC-4307), along with scans of the complete CD booklet & tray card. These were recorded at Ishwani Kendra Studios in Pune in 1990 and 1991.

This has been out of print for years. I only have a few mint copies left.

Authors whose contributions appeared in the booklet were Steve Elman, Phil Scarff, Ajit Soman and me. I like to have stuff to read.

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The first piece on the CD is “Welcome Home,” and it was also the first piece I wrote that year for this group.   The title came about because we were so happy to be back in Pune again after a couple of strenuous years in the USA…as we landed in Pune airport both Vijaya and I were weeping a little. I love that city.

“Welcome Home”

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“Friends Everywhere” is still being performed, by Phil Scarff’s group Natraj. I occasionally get tiny checks from BMI as a consequence of their version getting airplay. The tune was composed when I mentally listed all my friends and I realized they were all over the world.

“Friends Everywhere”

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Ajit Soman died earlier this year. His flute playing was a unique expression of a unique personality. Hearing him perform on “Ajit’s Dream” brings back a lot of memories; we had countless hours of long conversations, listened to huge amounts of music, and played, played, played. Everyone in Pune’s music community remembers Ajit with enormous affection.

“Ajit’s Dream”

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Steve Elman wrote an extremely sympathetic and generous piece.

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“Quarks” was one of our classic pieces from the days of the American ensemble. Check out the Cambridge band’s version of this piece here.

“Quarks”

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Once I’d gotten started writing pieces for particular members of the group, the next candidate was Ramakant Paranjpe. He has always shone in his classical playing, so I decided to feature him performing three different ragas, hence the title.

“Three Ragas For Ramakant”

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One of Vijaya’s guitar teachers commented that she had an “articulate hand.” It’s very true; her picking has superlative rhythmic definition. The core lick of this piece was something I’d discovered years and years before, but had never developed.

“The Storysinger (Vijaya’s Story)”

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The last of the “concerti” for the players is this piece for Atul Keskar. I wanted to challenge his technique and conception, and he rose magnificently to the occasion.

“Where Is Atul?”

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This piece is the “Antigravity National Anthem” (please sit down). The groove has been with me longer than any other; the American band played it here.

“Life on Planet X”

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I wanted to do something very outside, and “Eponymous” pushed the players and the ensemble to their limits. It was very weird mixing this piece; the dilruba seemed very soft, but when we actually isolated its levels it was saturating the entire recording. I’ve never encountered anything like that before.

“Eponymous”

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Phil and Ajit — two Antigravitoids from two different continents. I’m glad I had their combined perspectives on this page.

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I actually left out a few people. I left out Fred Sokol, Betsy Pirtle, Jerylann Owens and Gordon Hahn.

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The photograph of Ashish Manchanda is not actually of Ashish. He hadn’t sent me a picture by the time the material was to go to the printer, so I got a very grainy picture of another drummer, took it to “Stats for You” and requested them to render it unrecognizable. It was the only time they’d ever received such a request. Now it would have taken 20 seconds on Photoshop; back in the day it had to be done professionally, and cost about $80.
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And that’s the record. It still holds up pretty well, I think.