London 1969: Friends Clem Alford (sitar, esraj, Indian tambura), Jim Moyes (electric guitar) and Keshav Sathe (tabla, percussion) played together as a trio under the name Sargam and released an LP which was mistakenly released by the Windmill label under the name Sagram. Following this setback, they presented their material to the Mushroom label (Simon Finn, Second Hand) and were offered a record deal. To fulfil this, they sought a female vocalist and signed the guitarist and singer-songwriter Alisha Sufit. As a quartet, now under the name Magic Carpet, they recorded their self-titled debut album in the winter of 1971/72 at Chalk Farm Studios, owned by label boss Vic Keary, who also acted as producer.

It was released in June 1972 with an attractive cover design by Alisha Sufit and featured psychedelic rock-influenced instrumental tracks in an oriental style, complete with fuzz guitars and extensive sitar and acoustic guitar passages, as well as wonderful female vocals. It was one of the first authentic fusions of Western and Eastern music. The band continued to perform occasionally at festivals and gave concerts, yet they never managed to make their big breakthrough. Due to a lack of success, they split up later that same year. Released in a pressing of only a thousand copies, this extraordinary album is now regarded worldwide as a highly sought-after collector’s item of early British Eastern Vibe acid folk.