Ragas and reinvention in Sandeep Narayan’s music

Sandeep Narayan shares how younger audiences are embracing Karnatik music and why cultural reinvention matters today.

Karnatik vocalist Sandeep Narayan feels that more Indians are beginning to recognise the value of traditional forms of music. At his concerts, he often sees younger audiences, many of them new to Karnatik music, not just listening, but showing an interest in learning it themselves. Still, he believes much more needs to be done to help people connect with India’s rich musical heritage.

Narayan’s own journey reflects this growing curiosity. Though born and raised in Los Angeles, he moved to India in 2006 to follow his passion for Karnatik music. Today, while his work is rooted in classical tradition, it is also open to experimentation.

His compositions feature traditional instruments like the mridangam and bansuri, alongside modern ones like the acoustic and bass guitar.

“I wanted to step out of the traditional box and try something of my own,” he says. His first experiment in fusion music was with a quartet of artistes, where they featured the guitar, flute, and ghatam. This was followed by the first official performance of his group, Sandeep Narayan & Ensemble, earlier this year, where they used an acoustic guitar, electric violin, mridangam, and thavil.

Narayan was first introduced to fusion music more than 15 years ago when he began listening to bands such as Shakti, which featured artistes John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Vikku Vinayakram, L Shankar and more. Later, he even had the opportunity to perform with Vinayakram, but would soon consciously step away from fusion music to focus on his Karnatik training and compositions. Five years ago, he found his way back into the fusion world when he participated in the Mahashivratri programme at a yoga centre in Coimbatore. Since then, he’s been doing collaborative work with other artistes while also trying to establish his own ensemble.

Narayan’s original compositions include a thillana in the Bageshri raga, and ‘Neelambari’, a collaboration with musical group Sounds of Isha. As for his ensemble, their music primarily involves creative improvisations of works by composers like Adi Sankara, Purandaradasa, Gopalakrishna Bharathi, Thyagaraja, Papanasam Sivan, Akka Mahadevi and Thirunavukkarasar. These span from 300-400-year-old compositions to more recent ones from around 50 years ago. Narayan believes that reinterpreting the presentation of the original compositions — without compromising the essence — can help bring the traditional art form to younger and newer audiences. Narayan has performed globally, from the US to Europe, the Middle East and beyond.

To keep listeners engaged, the ensemble balances high-energy pieces with more meditative ones. Their broad repertoire of ragas and talas allows them to perform in multiple languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit, Hindi, and occasionally, Malayalam.

When he is away from the stage, Narayan devotes time to training students in Karnatik vocals. His classes focus not just on learning compositions, but also on the nuances of concert performance.