WORLD ON A STRING - VAIKOM VIJAYALAKSHMI & THE GAYATHRI VEENA

You wouldn’t think a single string could sound like this.

The Gayathri Veena is a rare one-stringed instrument built by Vaikom Vijayalakshmi's father in Kerala. In her hands it becomes something altogether different: sliding, bending, and hovering between notes until melody begins to feel almost unmoored from the instrument itself.

Blind since birth, Vijayalakshmi has become one of South India's best-known musicians, but this transmission leaves the playback studio behind. Instead, it follows just one musician patiently stretching a single vibrating wire into unexpected melodic territory.

You’ll also hear some our favorite cut-ups from Alan Bishop’s Radio India on Sublime Frequencies, a banger from Discostan’s Odysseys in Electric Carnatic featuring the Mandolin Sisters, and a slow burner from All India Radio courtesy of Power Moves Library.