Woven Paths, released on August 26, 2026, is Melodic Intersect’s twelfth album: ten tracks, just over an hour of music, told as one journey from dawn to homecoming. This guide goes chapter by chapter through what you’ll hear, which musical traditions each track draws on, and where to start if you only have ten minutes.
What is Woven Paths?
It’s a concept album by the core Melodic Intersect trio: Enayet Hossain (tabla), Hidayat Khan (sitar) and Greg Hatza (piano, Hammond organ and ROLI keyboard), released on AIMREC, the label Enayet Hossain runs. Its ten tracks run 1 hour 7 minutes, and each one is a chapter in the story of a traveller.
The album’s idea is summed up in a line from its album description: “Music is the thread that weaves all cultures, genres, and journeys into one endless tapestry.” Musically, that means Hindustani classical music meeting Spanish flamenco, heavy funk and electronic textures.
How does the album open?
With “The First Thread” (7:25): a fragile sitar melody at dawn, in conversation with gentle piano chords, before the tabla enters softly as a steady heartbeat. It’s a quiet, patient start, closer to the slow opening of an Indian performance than to a jazz head.
“Paths Unseen” (9:53), the album’s longest track, goes further: a traditional sitar alap, the unmetered opening section of a raga, set against the ROLI keyboard’s microtonal, atmospheric sound, with a fluid tabla rhythm underneath. For why those glides matter, see Raga vs. Jazz Modes.
Where does flamenco come in?
On “Crossroads” (8:50), the album’s fast, bright centrepiece. Hidayat Khan’s sitar takes on a Phrygian-dominant flavour, the scale shared by flamenco and the North Indian raga Hijaz Bhairav, over a Latin-inflected tabla groove and sharp, percussive piano chords.
The track celebrates the shared history of flamenco and Hindustani music, two distant traditions recognising each other. If you know Anoushka Shankar’s Traveller, which explored the same connection, this is a trio answer to it.
Which tracks are the quiet heart of the album?
“Echoes Along the Way” (7:58) is the album’s nightfall: a meditative sitar melody over deep, cinematic ROLI drones and a slow, hypnotic tabla pulse, heard as a conversation with ancestors.
“Between Two Worlds” (7:43) is the boldest arrangement on the record. The sitar drops out entirely, leaving a blues-tinged Hammond organ, piano and tabla in an intimate dialogue about the space between cultures. It’s the best showcase on the album for Greg Hatza’s jazz organ; our post on the Hammond organ and tabla explains why the pairing works.
Is there a tabla feature?
Yes: “Threads of Memory” (3:23). Here the tabla stops accompanying and becomes the protagonist. Enayet Hossain improvises intricate rhythmic passages over a sparse drone from sitar and piano, a short piece about the memories and cultural DNA we carry.
If you’re new to hearing tabla this way, The Tabla in Jazz explains how rhythmic cycles and bols work, which makes a solo like this much easier to follow.
Where does the album turn funky?
“The Turning Point” (5:17) breaks the acoustic mood with a heavy funk groove. The tabla locks into a syncopated beat, the sitar plays rapid, percussive riffs, and jazz and blues organ push the energy up, showing that ancient instruments can speak modern languages.
Tabla and sitar in funk have a history: Miles Davis’s On the Corner (1972) put Badal Roy’s tabla and electric sitars inside a dense funk band. “The Turning Point” takes the idea in a trio direction.
How does the journey end?
“Woven in Light” (7:36) gathers the threads. It’s a fast piece in 3/4, with bright piano chords under a soaring sitar melody, and it brings back motifs from earlier chapters. “Homeward Bound” (3:15) settles into calm: the tabla rests, and the ROLI keyboard lays sweeping strings under sitar and piano.
The title track, “Woven Paths” (5:39), closes the record on a complex bass and tabla foundation under heavy jazz and organ interplay, with every earlier motif braided together.
Where should I start?
With ten minutes, play “Crossroads” and then “Between Two Worlds”: the album’s two extremes, sitar and flamenco on one side, organ, piano and tabla without sitar on the other. With an hour, play it in order, because the motifs return. Woven Paths is on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Amazon; links are on the album page.
Then go back one album to Beyond Borders (2025), or browse the discography. To hear these pieces live, book Melodic Intersect.