Reimagining ragas on the piano

The music of the Anirudh Varma Collective has a wholesome feel. You can expect the stage to be filled with artistes playing both Indian and Western instruments, while singers explore a range of ragas alongside contemporary styles. Notes from the piano, often emanating from the rear of the stage, hold the ensemble’s music together. The collective’s founder, Anirudh Varma, a New Delhi-based pianist and composer, ensures that the music remains easy on the audience’s ears, however complex the compositions may be.

Varma reflected on the group’s journey after a performance at The Sacred Amritsar music festival in Punjab last month. Around 2017, he began contacting musicians he had met during his days at Delhi University, to work on a collaborative project for his post-graduation thesis. Sixty-five of them came together, resulting in the album ‘Perspectives’ within a year. The collective that formed has since collaborated with over 200 artistes globally, though its core group comprises 12 musicians.

While ‘Perspectives’ had arrangements that were mostly Varma’s, their second album, ‘Homecoming’, saw more musicians bringing in their own pieces. The first album reflects the collective’s early phase of experimentation, with most tracks delving into ragas like shudh kalyan and maru bihag. In contrast, the storytelling in the latter comes through in a fuller voice, with the title track conveying a sense of finding one’s place.

‘Sabr’, their latest release, is rooted in a more metaphysical landscape. The 12-track album conveys yearning and a sense of searching. Compositions like ‘Mausam’ and ‘Kuchh doori’ linger in the listener’s mind.

Varma’s love for music came from his family. “We would go to my grandparents’ home in Allahabad every summer. My grandfather, S N Varma, a senior lawyer at the Allahabad High Court, was also a musician, and he would make the entire family sing,” he recalls.

One summer, while he was “playing around” with his grandfather’s harmonium, his family noticed that he could pick up any tune without any training. Playing by ear was his first step towards music. His parents enrolled him in keyboard classes, but he eventually shifted to the piano.

Over time, the piano became his pathway to exploring Indian classical music. By the time he was in college, this reimagining of ragas on the piano had become his musical language. He is personally drawn to ragas like yaman, tilak kamod, and bhimpalasi though he believes “each raga tells us a unique story.”

As a collective, he says their “intent is always to have the arrangements adapt around the classical composition, not the other way around”. And he finds it “encouraging that listeners unfamiliar with classical music feel a sense of curiosity and excitement” when they listen to the collective’s work.