The unusualness of this album begins with the dustcover itself. It is perhaps the first cover I have seen which has no colour or picture or detail on it, except for a white-on-white embossing of the name of the producing company — Times Music. That whets one’s curiosity, which mercifully is lived up by the numbers that are included.

In fact there are very few songs. There are only melodies tweaked in a way to make them shed even their humble origins. For instance, who would have thought of such a transformation in the theme tune from the long-forgotten film Shalimar as has been managed by Abhijeet Pohankar?

I am in general opposed to any remixes but here even they work fairly well, because the end product is an entirely new creation in itself. The best example of that is Abida Parveen’s Ab Lagan Lagi, which has got a different lease at the hands of Craig Pruess.

Most of the other songs have been included under exclusive licence from foreign record companies. For instance, Soham and Moody Moon are the properties of Dao Music, Canada. Arabian Heights and Inshallah (Karunesh) come from Oreade Music, The Netherlands, as does Moondawn at the Temple of the Sun. Beyond Heaven from the same company has been remixed by Karunesh.

Dreams in Green by Dino Pacifici is the most polished entry from Planet Records, Canada. African Papillon by Kamal is from the album Mystery Road and Umu, umu by Zeus and Spiritual Traders is the property of Blue Flame Records, Germany.