CHENNAI: Ablend of Romanian folklore with North Scandanavian music, a pinch of jazz rhythms with Swedish music, and to add to the richness, a bit of our very own Indian flute and tabla – a cocktail of styles, reached the listeners as world music! Five musicians, Sashank Subramanyam (flute), Lelo Nika (accordion), Thommy Andersson (bass), George Mihalche (cimbalom) and Ojay Adhiya (tabla) came together recently to perform at the Parks new festival in the city.
City Express caught up with the musicians over a cup of tea to chat about music interplay, ‘How Shashank meets the Lilo Nika trio’ materialized, their jamming sessions, the current global music scenario and more. “Thommy, George and I have been acquainted for a very long time, Thommy introduced me to meet this wonderful accordion player, Lilo and I readily agreed,” recalls Sashank, the Grammy-nominated flute exponent. “When all of us met, we knew we had to do something together! Now, we have been playing for almost three years.”
Though from different countries, these musicians have one common ideology– they don’t play different genres of music. “We play music for music,” says Lilo Nika, the two time winner of Accordion World Champion title. “For us, music is just one language and boundaries don’t hinder anything. I have been playing since I was four. It’s like a family tradition.”
While, Sashank and the trio have performed together before, Ojay Adhiya, a tabla player from Mumbai, is a new addition to the team. “We never have percussions in our band. This time we wanted something Indian that could blend with the styles and what’s more appropriate that the tabla?” smiles the Kalaimamani recipient. “This is the best tabla I’ve heard. This guy is awesome!” says Thommy animatedly pointing at Ojay.
Being his first collaboration with the group, Ojay loves the space provided to him as an individual. “Our jamming sessions are very innovative and we improvise a lot. All four artists give each other the space to perform,” he shares.
George and the rest of the artists say that they aren’t here to prove that one instrument or a genre of music is better. “We are here for music!” claims Lilo. Shedding light about music in a global scale, Thommy shares, “I noticed a worrying trend among the young musicians – even if they play something that’s medium-good, they think that they have achieved great heights. The optimism is good, but they should realise that the quality is going down.”
Concurs Sashank, who talks about the culture of new bands being formed everywhere. “The youngsters are raking over each other’s talent. But most of these musicians will not be able to make a career as individual musicians,” he avers, and opines that fusion music does not have a direction in India. Stamped as folk, jazz and classical musicians depending on the countries they visit, these artists feel that they shouldn’t be divided based on genres and styles. “We perform for the joy, passion and love of it. We all became musicians by nature and will play for the art!” adds Lilo.