When Folk Jams With Funk

Folk will be fused with funk jazz,funk rock,and blues. “The genres effortlessly fuse together. That’s when you know it will work. When the music seamlessly travels from one style to another,without a structure,it becomes soulful fusion,” adds Papon,whose initial inspiration came from his musician parents Archana and Khagen Mahanta in Assam.

There’s something that everybody will like,says Mathangi. This trained Carnatic,Hindustani and Western classical vocalist adds,”We as artistes got exposed to different vocalists and instrumental artists. I,for example,had never seen or heard the bulbul tarang before the show. Even when I heard Papon,I was awed at the fusion of Assam folk with rock.” In the concert,Mathangi and Papon will be singing a number by Shankar Mahadevan. “And we’re bringing our own styles to it. With Tochi (Raina),it’s a mix of Punjabi sufi and Carnatic music,” she says.

“The whole experience is about enjoying each others’ styles. There’s a chemistry generated from the fact that we’re all from different backgrounds and come from our own space,” Papon says. The artiste has been known for his fusion music. In fact,when his band East India Company combined folk with electronica,a new word Folktronica was coined. “Everything is fusing today. The media and the internet have brought the world together. It has become a smaller place,” says the singer who is also releasing his first Hindi album soon. “I’ve been working on it for so long now. It’s like a period album! I’ve changed and evolved over the years and that is evident in the different songs,” he says.

Mathangi,who has been doing fusion music for more than six years now,was blown away by Coke Studio Pakistan. “And when Leslie Lewis said it was coming to India and that he’d like me to be a part of it,I knew there would be no better platform for experimentation,” she says. She performed the minicert in Bengaluru recently and appreciates how the audience for fusion music has grown. “The concerts have filmy stuff,completely re-done,as well as compositions created especially for the show. There’s just so much happening – different genres,different languages; so much variation under one roof,” she says. In fact,post the concerts,she hopes to work on singing in different languages. “I’ve already sung in 17 languages but now I want it to become a larger part of my life. Fusion is what keeps me on my toes and challenges me,” she adds.

(The performance will take place today at Hard Rock Cafe,

Koregaon Park at 8 pm)