Dhruv Ghanekar
| Photograph Credit score: Particular Association
There appears to be a particular connection between music and journey. Musicians typically speak about how journey experiences encourage them to create tunes. Likewise, greatest journey recollections are typically related to sure songs.
Composer, producer and guitarist Dhruv Ghanekar lately launched the second version of his collaborative album, Voyage 2. Encompassing sounds and types of artistes from the world over, the mission has been a few years within the making. Since 2021, the journey has taken Dhruv throughout the globe — from Costa Rica to Boston, Paris to Denver, Nashville to New York Metropolis, with a lot of it being assembled at his studio in Mumbai.
The concept kick-started a couple of years in the past when Dhruv started recording melodies with Assamese playback and folks singer Kalpana Patowary and Rajasthani folks singer Ila Arun, who can be his mother-in-law. “I’ve all the time been drawn to highly effective voices with loads of character. By a contented coincidence, most of my principal artistes on this mission are ladies, which was not premeditated however appears relatively preordained. Each voice on Voyage 2 is an authority within the tradition she represents,” smiled Ghanekar.
Among the different collaborators on the album embody composer, lyricist and playback singer Vaishali Samant, bassist Mohini Dey, ace drummer Gino Banks, percussionist Taufiq Qureshi, singer and performer Nandini Srikar and famous bass guitarist Tim Lefebvre amongst others. “Voyage 2 is one huge genre-less groove celebration. Being fearless and open to numerous influences allowed me to discover a lot of my influences.”
Dhruv will go on a Voyage 2 tour on the finish of the 12 months
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Particular Association
The album combines Indian folks music with music traditions from all around the world, together with Brazilian Samba, Balkan music, funk and jazz. “Each tune is a wedding of two or extra diametrically completely different cultures,” defined Dhruv. Components of the album have been conceptualised whereas he was touring with the primary Voyage mission — together with ‘Deuri’, a mixture of conventional Assamese folks, jazz funk and Brazilian influences, and ‘O Sorothia’ mixing Assamese with reggae, dub, electronica and rap. ‘Suprabhatam’ is a fusion of historic Sanskrit prayers with drum, bass and hip-hop influences. In ‘Nacho’, Balkan horns and African guitars meet Ila Arun’s uncooked vocals.
Additional, there have been newer songs that Dhruv began engaged on just a few months again, similar to ‘Jatra’, a fusion of Marathi lavni with Brazilian grooves, Norwegian folks tunes and Portuguese vocals, and ‘Rasiya Chuneri’, which mixes Motown funk with Rajasthani folks. All of Ila’s songs have been composed a couple of years in the past for a mission known as ‘Raudy Raajas’. The reggae and drum-and-bass influenced ‘Jadu’ in addition to the funk fusion, ‘Bego’, have been born from these classes. As every tune began taking form, Dhruv initiated the method of recording their varied instrumental components.
Intrigued by the idea of making a brand new stage musical from scratch for the Japanese market, Dhruv’s final public mission was Mumbai Star (2023). Just like the tapestry of town that it shares the title with, its music is wealthy and various, together with components of Kathak, Bollywood and Broadway all wrapped in a musical extravaganza. The present acquired an exceptional reception throughout Japan with over 30 reveals in 25 cities . A lot of it was recorded reside, and took about 9 months to create. “From high-energy dance anthems to heart-warming romantic ballads, classical Kathak-influenced dance items to a Mumbai-style rap/hip-hop, and an exhilarating celebration fusion observe full of wealthy Indian percussions,” is how Dhruv described it.
Voyage 2 will go on tour on the finish of the 12 months. This 12 months, Dhruv additionally guarantees to make a comeback in his singer-songwriter avatar. “It’s a cool mission that’s diametrically reverse to Voyage 2,” he revealed.
