City music festival to promote World unity

The NCPA will organise a fusion music festival in the city from December 15 to 16, titled ‘One World Many Music’, the event has live performances from fusion band Indian Ocean and fusion group Asia Electric.

The NCPA will organise a fusion music festival in the city from December 15 to 16, titled ‘One World Many Music’, the event has live performances from fusion band Indian Ocean and fusion group Asia Electric, which comprises of sitarist Niladri Kumar, keyboard player Louis Banks and drummer Sivamani.

HT Image

The yearly festival promotes musical expressions from diverse world traditions. Dr Suvarnalata Rao, head of programming, NCPA says, “We’re trying to bridge man-made divides through music. Even if language is foreign, music instantly connects.”

Indian Ocean, renowned for experimenting with different genres, will play a mix of songs from their earlier albums and their latest, 16/330 Khajoor Road. It has been a fulfilling year for the band what with having composed the soundtrack to the Bollywood film

Peepli Live

and performing at USA, Canada, Sweden and China. “We’ve had an amazing run in Mumbai so far, and we hope it continues,” says guitarist Susmit Sen.

Musician Niladri Kumar, known for inventing the Zitar (a modified version of the electric sitar), extols the cultural unity that the festival propounds. “Nowadays, anything that unites is very rare and should be promoted, since most things are divisive in nature. Plus, the ‘One World’ concept works better with music than any other form of art,” he says.

The festival acts have been chosen for their efforts to combine world music with Indian sound. Rao says, “Indian Ocean brings jazz elements to Indian sound. And Sivamani can create sound out of anything given to him. It’s exciting to see them perform together.”