Bickram Ghosh is in an aggressive mood these days. Coming from a percussionist trained in the classical mould, that should be quite surprising to fans. But then, he has every reason to be so, with three international projects shaping up simultaneously, including one with the percussion designer in the music of James Bond films, even as he is composing music for several films. He’s currently composing music for acclaimed screenplay writer Sooni Taraporewalla’s directorial debut Little Zizou, produced by Mira Nair’s Mirabai Films.
Riding high on critical acclaim that his new age album Drum Invasion is receiving, Ghosh is already working on another ‘new age’ project that will see him strive to surpass the limits of his creativity. Ghosh’s ‘funky improvisation’ – as he terms it – while performing the Pagla Hawa song in Anjan Dutt’s English film Bong Connection, caught the fancy of many a music lover. And though his music in feature films have not gone beyond the level of discerning listeners, his fans could expect some interesting stuff in Little Zizou as well as Charu (Hindi-English), and two Bengali films Neel Rajar Deshe and Piyali’s Password.
Not surprisingly, it is his album projects that get him talking animatedly. “I am currently completing the albums Sunev and Repercussion, which are collaborations with international artistes like Pete Lockett, who is the percussion designer for James Bond films, and the Arabic star Djamel Beynelles. An album titled One‘ with the magical Jazz Unit is ready for release,” he says. And that is not all, he is also working on an untitled new age album and composing the music for Mallika Sarabhai's new production NADA.
Ghosh is quite excited about the sounds he has created in Drum Invasion. Ghosh has heavily focused – “almost completely” as he says - on rhythm in this album, though the element of melody is there in every track. “Most of the tracks are rhythm-driven unlike in my albums like Rhythmscape, Folktail or Interface. For me, Drum Invasion is like a cultural journey, a journey which is close to me as a person. I started out as a pure classical musician and have travelled through a variety of genres and am now experimenting with even techno and rock. In the album, the journey is just the opposite. You travel from a techno–inspired track like Acupella through a variety of genres and finally reaches a Hindustani classical tabla solo in Tabla Naad,” he says.
This son of tabla maestro Pandit Shankar Ghosh has performed in top venues of the world, such as The Royal Albert Hall, London, The Kennedy Centre, Washington D.C, The Palais De Beaux Arts, Brussels, and the Carnegie Hall, New York. He has been musically associated with greats like ex-Beatle George Harrison, in whose posthumously-released album Brainwashed he performed as a percussionist. He also worked with Pandit Ravi Shankar in hid Grammy Award-winning album Full Circle.
