Guest House Studios

Back in Kathmandu, we've spent the last few weeks mostly in our recording studio. Most professional recording studios we've found here are great for radio voices but too dead for acoustic instruments, so we've converted Tara and Danny's hotel room into a decent space, complete with hot showers for the musicians, something the Gandharbas don't get too often. The studio isn't perfect, and we have to stop for airplanes, water tanks being filled, or the odd Maoist rally in the streets below.

This last week has been a big one for Nepal. Maoist leaders signed a permanent ceasefire with the Nepali government, approving a new constitution that appears to have made everyone happy. The UN is excited (it may be one of the few recent cases of UN mediation actually helping achieve peace), and Nepal is gearing up to be a tourist destination again, with new trekking routes in the works and an optimistic plan to bring the country out of third world living standard within a decade.

But we've got a record to make, and several Nepali and Appalachian songs to teach each other. We can't play you the cuts for the disc, but here's Danny and Buddhiman making a little fusion of the ubiquitous Nepali folk song, Resham Firiri.

We've just got a few days left here in Nepal, but I'll try to keep the blog updated as we get through the footage. We'll see if we can get Tara and Danny to make a couple posts too.