THIRUVANATHAPURAM: ‘Ashram’ represents the music of two different worlds. For, it is the sound of European and Indian fusion rock. This Oriental rock band from Vienna and Austria, consisting of four Austrians and three Indian artistes, will present rock fusion music on April 23 at the Nishagandhi auditorium. The event, which will begin at 6.30 p.m., has been organised by Goethe-Zentrum Trivandrum.
‘Ashram’ consists of Manuel Seidl (vocal), Adrian Mueller (bass), Ajayan Gopi (thavil), Hari Kumar (tabla), German Schwarz (drums), Anu Praveen (vocal) and Judy Sepan (guitar and sitar). In the words of ‘Ashram’ members: ‘’Sounds of Indian tabla mixed with guitar riffs, mystic sitar tones and Far East voices embedded in fundamentally Western rock grooves is Oriental Rock, the unique sound of Indian European fusion.’’
The band came into being when guitarist Judy Sepan travelled to India in 2004 and met Ajayan Gopi, the thavil artist. Fascinated by the sound created during the jam sessions, they started to envision a cross-continental band. ‘Ashram’ was thus born.
‘Ashram’ has done a series of concerts in jails titled ‘Prison tour’ and some of them were without Indian artists. In 2006, Ashram got together again in Kerala for recording its first album in Thiruvananthapuram. In August and September 2007, they presented their first album (‘Ashram’) and played more than 30 gigs across Germany and Austria in the following tour.
Within a year, they had toured across Europe for seven weeks with a huge rock event as the finale.
For details of the performance, contact over 0471-3013018/ 3013023