India, Feb. 22 -- When vocalist Mahesh Kale agreed to collaborate with the Budapest Scoring Orchestra under the conceptual guidance of composer Rahul Ranade, the premise was clear: this would not be fusion, but an amalgamation without the blurring of identities.

In the vocabulary of Hindustani classical music, raaga means colour - a dye that seeps into the listener. When Kale speaks of this collaboration, he returns often to that metaphor. "When the symphony comes in, it brings its own colour - like an accent wall in the temple of raaga music," he reflects. The image is architectural and deliberate.

From the outset, Ranade was determined to avoid the easy shorthand of cross-cultural novelty. Fusion often seeks to collapse differences fo...