This is the second volume to be culled from a four-day session recorded at Ravi Shankar’s living room in his Encinitas, southern Californian home. In April 2011 the sitarist had turned 91. He was as conscious as any person in their tenth decade can be with the weight of years stacked against him. As a professional musician he had conceded to certain aspects of the inevitable, adopting a lighter, less physically demanding and more manageable instrument. The counterbalance was his musical maturity. Mentally, he remained bright. He grew his facial hair. Increasingly his usually private, playful side came out more in his music. In committing four days to the project, he must have been fully aware that the seven rag performances from The Living Room Sessions might become an epitaph of sorts. The opening performance is a mishra, or mixed rag, denoting a less strict interpretation in which other appropriate elements such as a melodic fragment are referenced. The ‘Mishra Kafi’ that unfolds is a medium-tempo lope with tight interaction between melodist and rhythmist. The second and longest (at some 22 minutes) piece – ‘Sindhi Bhairavi’ – is a regional variation on the nigh on all-purpose ‘Bhairavi’. In many ways the choicest of the trinity is the almost 11-minute ‘Bhairavi’ itself, proof positive of the adage of shuffling old cards afresh. They dive straight in with no preamble or alap movement. Shankar’s initial attack is almost staccato and gloriously shadowed by Bose’s sensitive phrasing. The Living Room Sessions Part 2 is Shankar playing for dear life and music’s afterlife. A fine epitaph.