The U.K.-based sarod artist just recently finished up a multi-city trip and is constructing efficiencies around environment modification, craftsmens and an ode to his Bengali roots
London-based, Mumbai-born artist Soumik Datta. Image: Courtesy of the artist
London-based sarod artist and author Soumik Datta is investing about 7 months in India this year, more than he ever has in the past.
Part of a trip called Melodies in Slow Motion, it’s a mindful shift towards carrying out more in the nation, including his current Travellers set, which simply finished up with 6 programs, consisting of the Ziro Festival in September. This time, Datta, who was born in Mumbai, states it feels more like getting home. “When you reside in a city like London, you forget that the multicultural-ness of it is incredible, however someplace beneath all the layers, you’re extremely familiar with not being white.” As quickly as he steps off the aircraft in India, “that all of a sudden vanishes.” He includes, “There’s a sense of ease and liberty.”
These declarations might well be inspired by all the anti-immigrant, anti-multicultural rhetoric that’s quite present in nations in the West. It quite emerges in Datta’s performances with the Travellers, the band he created after a residency at Mumbai’s G5A previously this year. Through voice samples that conjure up ‘Not My President’ demonstrations versus U.S. President Donald Trump to individuals of Gaza, to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s A Tryst With Destiny speech about Indian liberty, and researcher Robert Oppenheimer reviewing his deal with the atom bomb, there’s a clear declaration in the self-described “ear movie theater” of the program.
With Carnatic violinist Sayee Rakshith, tabla artist Debjit Paitundi, and percussionist and mridangam artist Sumesh Narayanan, the band weaves in between Carnatic and Western expressions, the mix of rhythms from tabla, cajon and darbuka making it a lot more global-sounding. In the set, Datta likewise engages with the bhajan “Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram,” a tune “that meant compassion and secularism,” which his mom took with her when she vacated India in 1995.
The Travellers– in addition to other jobs he’s dealing with, consisting of one with fabric craftspeople in Ahmedabad and the Bengal-inspired Mone Rekho— is an outcome of an “old-school documentary design”innovative method for Datta.”I wasn’t actually working like this before in India. A great deal of my work remains in the West, and when I come here, it’s more about like viewing other individuals’s programs, visiting what is existing in India, “he states.
Around 3 years back, Datta was stimulated into making the Travellers set, upon being asked” what are you thinking about?”by a buddy.”I believe I stated I had an interest in storytelling, and in playing my instrument in a context that I felt held true. They resembled,’Okay, so can you do those things through audio?’ It’s took me a very long time for that to land,” he includes.
As he developed a bank of sound clips and music that he was influenced by, Datta started to comprehend the effective and transportive nature of audio. In June at G5A in Mumbai, he got to broaden on the audio style, providing 2 programs and carrying out workshops.
It caused concerns about the benefit that artists have of “being consisted of” and the typical thread of artists all having instruments they take a trip with, no matter whether they’re in an orchestra or in an indie band. From grouses about taking a trip with instruments, Datta and his group got to speaking about migration. “We began discussing, ‘Why are you here?’ In some methods, it’s since your instrument is your passport to see the world,” he states. It formed the core concept of the Travellers set.
There are times when the sonic metaphors take control of, like in a piece where Rakshith and Narayanan are playing raga Surutti and Datta is playing raga Gorakh Kalyan“There are lots of charming resemblances, however there are stress and distinctions. I think Sayee [Rakshith] is the migrant because method, due to the fact that I continue to remain in Gorakh Kalyanand he begins in Surutti and shifts over really gradually to another raga called Andolikawhich is better to Gorakh KalyanTowards completion, he’s practically with me. There is this sense of musical assimilation to show how a migrant might, over years, have to move and alter their character,” Datta discusses.
There’s another Travellers reveal at London Jazz Festival on Nov. 23 and after that Datta heads to Singapore for a program with Paitundi for Mone Rekho on Nov. 28 in Singapore. More reveals with the Travellers remain in the works too, in show halls however likewise “really uncommon areas.” Datta notes, [Spaces] where you can blur the line more in between entertainer and audience.”
In tandem, Datta is dealing with more subject that can link with music to press audiences into idea and ideally, action too. He’s dealing with juvenile detention centers for music workshops and efficiencies, and a multi-city workshop about the effect of air contamination checked out through field recordings and music. It will generate an album also however likewise a brand-new live production in April 2026 that ought to take shape by the time this existing trip ends. He states, “It’s truly an environment piece, and it’s about affiliation. Whatever requires air to be able to operate and live. The production will then go on after that to visit in schools and end up being a sort of tool for instructors and moms and dads to go over affiliation and the environment with kids.”