Percussion, konnakol key elements in Notesic’s music

While living in Sri Lanka, Dinushan Shanmuganthan fell in love with their music culture. People would start playing music, singing and dancing at random — in buses, at train stations, on the streets. “The music was always so rich in its rhythm. I would find myself thinking about these little performances long after I returned home,” says the percussionist, who created the Bengaluru-based band Notesic two years ago. 

His experiences in Sri Lanka have shaped his musical inclinations. When Notesic came together, the idea was to get people to dance. “The band was started after 8 years of research. The focus is to bring out the groovy elements in different genres to get listeners to move to the beat,” he explains.

Notesic comprises Shanmuganthan (drums, percussion, composer, arranger and producer), Anirban Sengupta (guitars/composer), Maharshi Benny (didgeridoo), Mathew Daniel (percussion) and Akshay Krishna (keyboards). Though the band was formed only two years ago, the members have known each other for much longer. “We have been playing together for a long time as members of different groups,” he says. 

The percussionist describes their sound as instrumental dance music. “Technically speaking, the tempo, at 140-180 beats per minute, falls somewhere between psytrance and techno,” he explains. Karnatik is a major element in their songs. Amusingly, it finds expression through the didgeridoo. “We have attempted to make the didgeridoo sound vocal, like konnakol,” he shares. Shanmuganthan and Benny are in the process of developing a language they call didgikol — which is essentially translating konnakol beats to the sounds of the didgeridoo. Elements of Middle Eastern and West African music give their tracks more depth. 

The group has also experimented with ancient instruments like udakki, a cross between the Tamil folk instrument udukkai and the edakka from Kerala. The percussion instrument used by the group was designed and made in Sri Lanka. Tunes from the Cretan lyra, a 200-year old stringed instrument, was also incorporated into one of their tracks. 

The band has released two songs so far — ‘Brahma vidya’ and ‘This thing that thing’. The former is heavy on sounds from the udakki and didgeridoo, while the latter is driven by percussion grooves. “For ‘This thing that thing’, we first wrote the percussion grooves and created the rest of the music around it,” he tells us.

Overall, the music is uplifting and energetic. But they also hope to deliver a deeper message through the songs. “‘Brahma vidya’ is about human intelligence and about how they can use it how they see fit — for good or bad. On the other hand, ‘This thing that thing’ is
inspired by how unpredictable one’s future is. We all have a rough idea of how our day will go, but often, it does not turn out the way we had pictured it in our minds,” Shanmuganthan shares.  

The group is currently working on their new album, which is expected to be out in March 2025, and preparing for their performance at a popular pub in Bengaluru in February.