Tunes across varied genres

As part of the Independence Day celebrations, Shoonya, a world music band, treated the Bangalore audience to a magical evening filled with melodious notes. The performance was held at the Alliance Francaise.

The band created its own dialect, culled from influences that ranged from folk, Carnatic and Hindustani music to West African rhythms.

Many among the audience were already familiar with the band and its music. They were eagerly waiting to see what the band had to offer that evening. At the same time, there were others who were hearing the band for the first time.

“I have heard of Shoonya before but had never been to any of their concerts. This is the first time that I am hearing them live and I must say it was different from the regular bands. All the instruments blended so well in each of the compositions,” said Anthony, a professional.  

Ask the band where they drew their inspiration for the concert from and they say that it is from ‘nothingness’ that they create some of the most eclectic and genre defying music.

For the concert, Shoonya attempted to address the most basic and necessary function –– conveying to the listener the pure joy of music. The two drummers –– Ashok, who was playing the djembe and the darbuka (hand drums) and Gopi, who was on the percussions — really stood out in the concert. Both these instruments, though belonging to different genres, blended so beautifully in many of the compositions that one forgot that the instrument belonged to two different countries.

Apart from them, there was Shridhar and Robert on the saxophones, Pramod Chakravarthy Stephen on bass and vocals, Sandeep Madhavan on bass guitar and Sangeetha Srikishen complemented the entire band with her vocals. The evening then ended with a dance improvisation by Abhilash Ningappa.