Coming Full Circle

In a musical career spanning over two decades, guitarist and composer Sanjay Divecha spent 15 of it in Los Angeles.

After recording with Carlos Santana and making music in LA for over a decade, composer Sanjay Divecha is all set to release his first album exploring Indian sounds

In a musical career spanning over two decades, guitarist and composer Sanjay Divecha spent 15 of it in Los Angeles. And every time he composed a song, the sound of India went missing. But all of that was until 2003, when 40-something Divecha decided to return home to Mumbai, explore the sounds of Indian languages and compile it all in an album, Full Circle. The album, brought out by Blue Frog, releases on September 24.

8220;This album, as the title says, is a sum of all my musical influences over the years. And the Indian sound, which was absent in my earlier compositions, is present here and that has made it special, giving me an identity,8221; Divecha says about the 11-track set. The lyrics are in Hindi, Tamil and English, apart from a smattering of Sanskrit shlokas, and the sounds are myriad 8212; Hindustani folk and Carnatic rhythms, apart from Latin American and African sounds, R038;B, jazz and gospel rock.

Divecha, who has strummed the acoustic guitar with Carlos Santana for the Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo, and with others such as drummer/composer Dave Weckl and renowned bassist Louis Johnson, has also played the guitar for the soundtrack of Penelope Cruz starrer Woman On Top and scored for films like Leela. He has been busy in Bollywood as well, having worked with music directors such as Vishal-Shekhar and Salim-Suleiman and playing in the forthcoming Ru Ba Ru by Arjun Chandramohan Bali and Aashayein by Nagesh Kukunoor.

This time, for the album, Divecha has collaborated with 20 musicians, including Kailash Kher, Kunal Ganjawalla, Ranjit Barot, Karl Peters and Vivek Rajagopalan. 8220;Collaborations are common, but my compositions have got the artists to do something they have never done before,8221; says Divecha, who has composed and produced all the tracks in the album. Artists like Kher, for instance, have taken to a westernised singing style.

8220;The journey of making this album and exploring India has been a learning experience and even a lifetime doesn8217;t seem enough. This is what I will continue doing,8221; he smiles. He has indeed come a full circle.