Chris Conway - piano, keyboards, guitars, kalimba, tin whistle, laud, bamboo flute, bombarde, zither, melodica, percussion, voice. Carl Peberdy - sitar, tabla, bamboo whistle, percussion, fretless zitherbass, bowed psaltery, hammer dulcimer. Mary Browne - percussion, voice, alto saxophone Released on CD and download for the first time, this classic first album by The Rain Garden, originally released in 1991 on cassette. Sumptuously digitally recorded at the time, the album has been remastered and the beautiful sounds of the exotic instruments sound better than ever. Improvisation, atmospheric soundscapes form a core part of the Rain Garden. Carl Peberdy's sitar, Mary Bowne's stunning vocals and Chris Conways various magic tricks create an overall haunting sound. The Rain Garden The Rain Garden began in 1985 when multi-instrumentalists Chris Conway and Carl Peberdy were introduced by their sitar teacher Dharamvir Singh. Sharing interests in Indian, Celtic, Balkan and other world musics they formed a duo and toured the UK, combining world music influences with improvisation. Other musicians joined the group which then had a floating line-up, Mary Browne being a key factor in the sound on 3 of their albums in the 90s The Rain Garden have released several albums over the years, each featuring rich instrumentation, innovative arrangements and improvisation. In recent years Chris and Carl have been pursuing other projects and although Carl has recorded on some of Chris's albums and they have performed live together, their new album, India, will be their first album for 10 years. Chris Conway is active in many genres of music – Celtic, world music, electronic, jazz fusion, singer-songwriter and more. His connection with Indian music began when he studied the sitar in the 80s. He has been in Indo-jazz band Jazz Orient (also known as Re-Orient) for 18 years with sitar master Baluji Shrivastav with whom he has recorded 5 albums. He has also worked with violin maestro Dr L. Subramanium, tabla fusionist Talvin Singh and toured with the Pushkala Gopal & Unnikrishnan dance company. Carl Peberdy studied sitar under Dharamvir Singh, and classical Indian vocal from Kumar Shaswat, Sanchita Pal and Pandit Ajay Pohankar, and studied at Dartington College of Arts and the Birmingham Conservatoire (Bmus Raga Sangeet). Has regularly performed both as a solo sitar player and with traditional Indian dance ensembles, devotional groups and many fusion ensembles. He has also designed and constructed his own unique stringed instruments. Mary Browne sang and played percussion with the Soft Touch street band and took part in many street band festivals - she joined The Rain Garden in 1991 and made 4 albums with them, and also recorded with Chris Conway's Happy Landings jazz trio.