VF Mix 74: Sitar Jazz by Victor Kiswell

Brown Rice.

When he’s not on the trail for Salah Ragab, Warda and Karim Shukry in Cairo or raiding Aladdin’s caves for Afro-cumbia in Bogota, Victor Kiswell trades records out of his Paris apartment and operates one of our favourite online record shops.

From hip-hop diggers looking for odd breaks to music supervisors scoring a picture, Kiswell has a cult customer base, and it’s easy to see why – who else has an entire section dedicated to ‘Sitar Bangers’?

Since mixes aren’t just for DJs, we asked the record dealer to mix us some of his finest sitar-based stock. He hit us back with an hour-long selection, a meandering, lightly psychedelic journey through Don Cherry, Hiromasa Suzuki, Alice Coltrance and the Indo British Ensemble. Find the complete tracklist below.

“The sitar groove trend that occurred 15 years ago is behind us. At that time, when Ananda Shankar and the Shalimar soundtrack were re-discovered, a large field opened with lots of discoveries made,” Victor explains. “Now that the trend is gone, there are still some timeless tracks that deserve to be heard. Here are a few of them, more on the eerie psych jazz tinge, sitar-oriented, Indian-influenced.”

Tracklist:

01. Byard Lancaster – Palm Sunday
02. Don Cherry – Malkauns
03. Irene Schweizer Trio – Yaad
04. Joe Harriott & John Mayer – Song Before Sunrise
05. Baroque Jazz Trio – Delhi Daily
06. Hiromasa Suzuki – 3000 BC
07. Jazz Yatra – Sevenhills
08. Joe Henderson – Earth
09. Maki Asakawa – Govinda
10. Joel Vandroogenbroeck – Electronic Jungle
11. Alice Coltrane – Blue Nile
12. Jean Cohen Solal – Raga Du Matin
13. Indo British Ensemble – Lalit
14. Okko – Painted Sails On Ganges