When you think of slide guitar, most likely, it’s the blues that comes to mind—Elmore James, Ry Cooder, Duane Allman, Derek Trucks and their brethren. Debashish Bhattacharya set that convention on its ear decades ago, however, applying the slide technique to traditional Hindustani music via the Chaturangui, a 24-stringed hybrid instrument of his own design (one of three self-created instruments he routinely uses). The music produced by Bhattacharya is exceptionally rich and engulfing, exotic yet oddly familiar, steeped in the folkloric with stops along the way in the contemporary. The Sound of the Soul, the newest release from the Kolkata-born musician, serves as a tribute to Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the Indian sarod master who would have turned 100 in 2022. The showpiece of the four-track program is “To His Lotus Feet,” a nearly 40-minute world unto itself. Accompanied on tabla drums by Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Bhattacharya weaves together a story suggesting lush vistas and multiple moods. Throughout most of its run, the piece lulls along at a measured gait, Bhattacharya laying out and exploring themes before turning down the next road to see what lies ahead. Chaudhuri keeps most of his dynamic interplay on pause until late in the number, when both he and the guitarist bring it on home with a flurry of flourishes. Chaudhuri’s presence is felt on two of the other pieces, the title track and “Colors of Joy,” but he sits out the album-opening “Ever the Flame Burns,” an appropriately fiery jam that pairs Bhattacharya with Pandit Akhilesh Gundecha, who drums not only on tablas but also the double-headed Pakhawaj. If that explosive duet reminds some of John McLaughlin and his Shakti group, then that may not be coincidental: Bhattacharya put in time with that outfit and likely picked up as much from the English guitar great as McLaughlin absorbed from him.