Rasa - "Setting the Scene" (1980)

On a visit in my early teens at Uppsala's classic second-hand store Prisfyndet (something like The Price Discovery) I had one of my many meetings with an album cover I thought was really interesting (=druggy and/or psychedelic). When I met such a cover and the price requested was right (low), I used to make a move. I always had the strong hope that the music would be as psychdelic as the cover. This was also the case the day I met Rasa's album Setting the Scene, the price requested was about one dollar. I had never seen an album with such a cover and was extremely curious about the music that was hidden inside. To connect the cover, which I assume represents a Hindu god, with the Hare Krishna movement, never crossed my mind. That the album was recorded at Korsnäs farm (Sweden) told me nothing either.

When I played the record later that day I heard music of a kind I hadn't heard before. It starts with a really nice groove where you hear wind instruments, odd drums, tinkling cymbals, etc. After a while the song starts in a language that's not Swedish nor English, problably it's Hindi (or Indish, as I thought as a teenager ). I was happy, surprised and also a bit disappointed. I had expected a rather psychedelic album with Western music (in retrospective maybe a somewhat strange expectation, given on the cover) but was instead given something completely different, something that was far away from the music on my other records in the collection.

Thanks to the Internet, I know now a little more about the album and artist Rasa. Behind this name is Harikesa Swami, also known as Visnupad. He was born as Robert Campagnola and was aguru in the Hare Krishna movement. He has participated in and produced 28 records, except as Rasa also as BLISS and Sri Hari.

On the record a lot of different instruments are used - saxophone, santoor, drums, congas, piano, bass, cymbals, organ, trumpet. Except Anders Eriksson (drums) all other musicians carry Indian/Hindi sounding names. If they are of Indian origin or if they are Swedes who have taken new names in the Hare Krishna movement, I do not know. The piano is given a pretty big space on the recording and some songs are quiet and calm while others are a bit more groovy. To define the music on the album is unusually difficult, it's like some sort of mix of Eastern and Western music, with an emphasis on the former. The arrangements are often quite grand with a relatively open soundscape.

The album is overall quite nice but after a while I get bored. Visnupad's singing sounds relatively similar from song to song and since I don't understand what he sings it becomes a bit boring. It's easy to lose concentration after a while, especially as the songs are relatively long and sounds quite similar. Nevertheless, I am happy and proud that this album is a part of my collection, and I think it's fun to have a record of Rasa and music on the Hare Krishna theme in my collection. The truth is that I liked the music and the cover enough to buy a whole bunch of other Rasa records (and yes, they were cheap), but more on that later.

It can be added that the Korsnäs farm is situated in Gröding, Botkyrka council (Sweden), and that the Hare Krishna movement have one of their temples there. It's the only Radha Krishna temple in Scandinavia.


Favourite song
The Son of Nanda


Tracklist
Side A
1. The Son of Nanda 7:11
2. Setting the Scene 13:38


Side B
1. The Master 6:14
2. Touchstone II 8:09
3. Shelter 7:17