Spreading Indian ethno-electronic music across Europe
Ashram, a project which fuses Indian ethnic-root-tribal music with modern electronica, is set to tour Europe with 7 gigs across 5 cities
Music was always about sounds. Some songs die out; some survive – not necessarily in the same form. How can it be expected to remain rooted to a singular form when language is changing, cultures are evolving, migration is occurring and more importantly, people and society are changing!
Ashram, the brainchild of Berlin based producer Kanishka Sarkar, is an ethno-electronic music project which fuses the old ages with the modern, the urban with the rural and folk with new age electronica. This project keeps alive centuries old songs in a contemporary electronic musical avatar, though the essence is not buried.
But their setlist isn’t just restricted to the pages of history. It is spread across India’s map, crisscrossing through folk lands of nomadic tribes, farmers and boatmen to the prayer halls of Sufi saints and celebration of common man’s festivals. All of it through music and song. With a smooth tenor and natural husk, Arko Mukhaerjee evokes words on the music and beats laid down by Kanishka as they fuse experimental electronic music with ethnic-tribal-root folk music, mapping out a true blueprint of today’s times.
This summer they are taking their brand of unique music to Europe with seven concerts spread across five cities. They kick off the tour in Barcelona, Spain with gigs on 17th and 18th May, followed by a gig in Krakow, Poland on 31st May. The month of June will find them pleasing crowds in Czech Republic - on the 1st in Brno, and on the 8th in Ostrava. The last leg of the tour will be conducted in Berlin, Germany with gigs on 7th and 13th.
Arko and Kanishka both hail from Kolkata, India. The former, an urban folk artist, is known for his showmanship with bands like Fiddler’s Green, Ziba and his own Arko Mukhaerjee Collective besides having three solo albums – Ghater Kotha, FIVE and The Lion and the Hamster - to his name. The latter was the keyboardist for Cactus, a pioneering band of the massive Bengali rock music scene. He later shifted base to Berlin and picked up production skills and electronic music mastery. So when their quite different worlds merged, one might have expected disharmony. Instead, a unique soundscape evolved organically.
Kanishka works hard to collect acoustic sound samples and then forms a pattern out of them on-the-go. This puts Arko in a dilemma regarding which direction to take, but at the same time allowing him an extreme amount of space to navigate. “We create spontaneous jam music. One is constantly listening to the other and reacting. There is no pre-defined structure. Therein lies fun. That is an inherent quality of organic music,” said Kanishka in an interview with Kaahon, a platform for expression and documentation of creative arts. “We agree on certain common operating zones to connect onstage and then improvise.”
But some purists turn up their nose at the thought of traditional folk music being presented in an electronic format. It supposedly pollutes the original essence. “There are people who hold up certain standards as this is the way to do this, this is the way to sing a song. You cannot deviate. Who said so?,” exclaimed an animated Arko, “When I’m singing in the moment to electronic music, I am the creator of the song in that moment.
The question of originality also comes into play in this context. “What comes naturally to an artist at one moment becomes his version – a new one. And that blurs the rigidity of originals. What is original? Whatever the artist is honestly doing at the moment of musical creation is his/her originality,” was Arko’s response.
To quote jazz great Louis Armstrong, “All music is folk music. I ain’t ever heard a horse sing a song.” This is a premise to all things that Ashram does. According to them, no song is original. It is a manifestation of that person’s influences and culture and the kinds of music he/she has been exposed to. “Whatever music traditionally exists in the world is the result of a migrant phenomenon behind it. There was a different tradition earlier. That was influenced by foreign elements, resulting in new traditions. No music in the world has suddenly evolved out of nothing,” said Arko while speaking with Kaahon. “We are not doing anything new, just following the existing tradition of music making.”
In reply to a question regarding their head space on stage, Kanishka said, “It is endless. There are no fixed length tracks. It is a mixture of live loops and synth motifs, in different moods and combinations which creates different textures. It is unique for each show because we do not know which loop, which set of synths or harmonies we’ll play. We play along to the mood and what we feel.” To this, Arko added, “For me, the living space in front – the people – is important. And how we react to that? That is the main ingredient to the head space. Place, time and audience are very crucial.”
They further ponder over the lifespan of one song which can last for a 100 years maximum, or more in some cases. But when a song has been passed on for 600 years, one cannot expect it to remain intact in one form. But little musical phrases, melodies, sounds and rhythms have existed for centuries which can blend into other forms of music, becoming an inherent part of it. This creates the mirage of a common algorithm where music from different lands sounds similar. And that is where Ashram digs for gold, or creates their signature music, which is not bound by geographical barriers or time.
“An ashram is a place where people from different places come and share their views and philosophies. We are Ashram because this is a mix pot of different kinds of music,” was Kanishka’s beautiful sum up as to what Ashram is as an entity.
Here their songs available on YouTube:
