Esraj

The Indian instrument esraj offers an amazing sound - in the Indian classical as well as the avantgarde xperimental field. With its one main, three bordoun and 15 sympathetic strings it produces a nice, metallic reverb. The sound strongly reminds of the Sarangi, mostly in its heights, but it differs a lot in playing tecnique.

The corpus is covered by goatskin, like a banjo, a horn bridge transports the sound into its body and reberbates in the hollow inside totally up the neck.

As much as the Sarangi is commonly used (in the classical context, but also in Bollywood), the Esraj is hardly heard. It is a very old instrument, often played in Nepal and Bengal, traditionally used for accompainment of vocalists. Rabindranath Tagore also made use of the Esraj. There are few Indian masters playing it today, in first instance Allaudhin Khan and his family, namely his son Arshad Khan, who carry on the spirit of classical esraj

The Esraj has a sister instrument: the Dilruba, which has a square body and the Sitar-like tarb Strings: they are beneath the main strings and the frets.

For contemporary art projects Deno uses the esraj in mostly non traditional manners: prepared with laundry clamps and played with chinese sticks and a lot of other and available stuff.