Music Sans Borders

We live in a world of quirky music projects,most of which aim to bring musicians from different zones under one umbrella. OK World is one such concept,created by UK-based bassist-flautist Shrikanth Sriram aka Shri,and Norwegian pianist and electronics genius Bugge Wesseltoft. The two have put together an eclectic group of master musicians and formed the band,OK Go. The group travels across the world,visiting the home cities of different members. Thus,they experience the music of each region before introducing it into their repertoire.

On Friday,Ok Go set up their instruments at Blue Frog in Mehrauli. Each musician was a master of his instrument,making this a memorable show. Wesseltoft,on piano and synthesizer,resembled a mad scientist,gleefully capering on the stage,his fingers dancing across the keys and other electronic instruments. Sriram (who has also been featured on the popular TV show The Dewarists) was on flute and bass guitar,behaving like a child who has just been gifted his dream guitar — he plucked happily on the strings,slapped it,took a violin bow to it,and occasionally playing it conventionally.

Apart from the two founders,the line up includes flamenco guitar maestro Josemi Carmona from Madrid,and percussionists Amade Cossa from Maputo,Khaled Yassine from Beirut,and Vivek Rajagopolan from Mumbai. The percussionists beat up a storm of applause with drums ranging from the mridangam to the bongo to the tambourine. Half-way through the concert,Yassine even started beating the “seat” he had been perched on — and the audience realised the “chair” was actually a musically instrument.

Carmona,who started playing midway through the concert,deserved all the cheers he got. His fingers blurred over the stings as his guitar crooned out the staccato beats that characterise Flamenco. The resulting sounds of the musician playing off each other led to a roller-coaster melody,the cadences of the music creating an unusual harmony. It was hard to say who enjoyed more,the audience or the band.