Folk Tales

When the duo,Hari Singh and Sukhmani Malik,popularly known as Hari and Sukhmani,will perform at NH7 music festival this November,the audience may find a touch of Rajasthan in their music. Earlier this year,the Punjabi munda Singh and soni kudi Sukhmani had recently gone ‘sound- trippin’ across Rajasthan to look for new sound influences,which they intend to infuse with their songs for their gig at NH7. Exploring northern regions of Rajasthan,they halted in Pushkar to spend time with the folk artistes there. For instance,they met a vocalist who knew seven foreign languages and has been travelling extensively to spread the rich musical culture of the state to various corners of the world.

“We also met a man whose family business in playing nagada,” says Hari,an audio engineer who studied electronic music in Manchester. Inspired by their journey,the duo have used a lot of folk-music instruments like the nagada,a traditional drum,and kamachiya,a type of stringed instrument. Infact,it was during their stint on Coke Studio,a popular television series,held in August,they brought in new sounds to traditional folk music –folktronic—which went on to become a new genre.

Prior to NH7 music fest,Singh and Sukhmani will be performing in Pune on October 3,at Swig Bar and Eatery,Koregaon Park. Dedicated to promoting,reviving and ‘electrifying’ Indian classical music and Punjabi folk,they met four years ago through a common friend,who had heard their individual styles and asked them to jam together. “The idea of our music is to bring back the rich musical heritage of Punjabi culture. We want to stylize raw Punjabi folk and fuse it with electronic sounds without tampering with the essence of the original folk song,” says Sukhmani,who holds a masters degree in Indian Classical vocal. Together,they have performed in Australia,Wellington and New Zealand.

Even at Sunburn Festival,held in Goa in December last year,their song,’Kale rang da paranda’,again a folktronica act,was an instant hit. “The song is about a woman excited about the gifts showered on her by her boyfriend. Our music is all about getting back to our roots,with funk,” says Sukhmani.

(Hari and Sukhmani will be performing in Pune on October 3,at Swig Bar and Eatery,Koregaon Park,9 pm onwards)