Al Gromer Khan is a German sitar player and composer whose music spans the multiple genres of ambient, new age, world and electronica.
Al Gromer Khan was awarded the Rabindranath Tagore Cultural Prize 2015 for his lifetime achievement as musician/performer on sitar and surbahar of the highest order, composer, writer and visual artist by the Indo-German Society.
Gromer Khan claims that he was drawn to the "mysteries of sound", from early childhood, be it the sound of the bells worn by the Bavarian cows grazing in the alpine meadows near his birthplace, or the "singing" telephone wires on the wind in the freezing Bavarian winters, and later American blues and country music, Indian stringed instruments, the drums of North Africa.
The 1960s found a twenty-something Al Gromer in London where he took part in a number of creative experiments which were to have a lasting influence on him.
According to Gromer Khan, the Prince Tiane na Champassak of Laos introduced him to tantric art and pop star Marc Bolan invited him to join in the all-night jam sessions he hosted.
He explored psycho-acoustic phenomena with film director Mike Figgis, and saxophonist Ronnie Scott of Ronnie Scott's Jazzclub, who introduced Al to Ben Webster, Max Roach and Miles Davis, while Cat Stevens (now known as Yusuf Islam), gave him a taste for English poetry.