Tunes from around the world

Deeply Effective

It was a night that anyone who attended would talk about for days. The Trinity Hall at Vivanta by Taj turned into a forest of unusual music during the ‘Deep India’ concert held recently.

French ‘ethnic electronica’ artiste, ‘Deep Forest’ aka Eric Mouquet, true to his word, gave an unforgettable performance. “This is the first time we’re playing in India and we’re going to tell you stories from 20 years ago till now. For those who know ‘Deep Forest’, you’ll recognise a little bit of each album,” shares Eric, before starting off.

With a vibrant, carefully planned set list, he took the listeners from his very first album to his new, unreleased material. No one could believe that a 52-year-old man was capable and so well-versed with modern technology to drop the bass in an African song or morph his voice the way he did!

As the night progressed, Eric and the band covered much ground, exhausting a lot of numbers the crowd had grown up hearing — ‘Night Bird’, Tiko, ‘Marta Song’, ‘Anasthasia’, Yelele, Bedi, Atali Wowo, ‘Deep Weather’ and of course, ‘Sweet Lullaby’.

“I liked the element of surprise in the show,” shares Minu, an audience member. “There was no knowing what the next song would be or even within the same song, what to expect next. It was both relaxing and energising,” she adds.

A tribute to the recently deceased Pandit Ravi Shankar was also paid, where the singer, Olyza performed a soulful and powerful number. Following that, Eric sampled two songs from ‘Deep India’, an album where he has collaborated with santoor player Rahul Sharma.

There was Bihu and Madikeri, both of which had a unique Indian flavour to them, while freely experimenting with electronica. What resulted were catchy tunes that you couldn’t help move your feet to.

“I don’t know much about this music. But it was different and nice. I’m a 1960s person, but even this made me sway with the music. There’s something great about it,” says Chaya, who enjoyed the concert. All in all, it was a mystical world music outfit, which thoroughly impressed all that attended.