Shashank Subramanyam, the Grammy-nominated, young Carnatic flute virtuoso was in New Delhi to participate in "Shashank Meets Lelo Nika Trio" as part of the 10th edition of The Park’s New Festival- 2016. The festival was aimed at showcasing the ‘new’ from the emerging global art scenario. The multi-city festival was presented in the Capital this past week by The Park in association with Prakriti Foundation.
The fascinating performance had five musicians from across the globe with Shashank on Indian flute and Ojas Adhiya on tabla along with the Lelo Niko Trio that had Lelo Nika on Serbian accordion, George Mihalache on Romanian cimbalom, and Thommy Andersson on Swedish bass. These gifted artistes with myriad cultural and global influences, revisited their rich cultural heritage while expressing themselves, creatively pushing away all the boundaries, during this mesmerising musical confluence.
Lelo Nika, the two-time accordion world champion, who comes from a village in North Belgrade, moved to Denmark and now lives in Sweden. He has played with several jazz celebrities broadening his musical horizon and versatility. George is from Romania with deep roots in folklore music. He has played his outstanding cimbalom with many great musicians of different styles including Shashank. Andersson, who is from Swedish folk music tradition, is not only a bass and cello player but also an educator, composer for rhythmic and classical ensembles, arranger for orchestras and soloists. Both he and Shashank have taught at the Copenhagen Music Conservatory, where they met for the first time. They were also members of a band called Jungle. Ojas, a child prodigy, has his name in the Limca Book of World Records as the youngest tabla player in India.
The musical evening took a flying start with Lelo Nika Trio playing a lively composition with Shashank joining them on his melodious flute and Ojas on the pulsating tabla, which gradually speeded up and reached the crescendo. Shashank then soothed down the flourish with the aalap of raga Hemavati on flute. It was followed by a composition that he wrote for them where they went improvising. There was a thrilling sequence of sawal-jawab too, where they took turns and Ojas promptly reciprocated to their harmony and rhythmic patterns.
The Swedish folk music came next, where George was in his spirits and the rest of them joined the rejoicing. The concluding piece that sounded like Madhuvanti, was treated like jazz, where each one of them made a musical statement according to their own sweet will in their own individual way. The bass, played in lower octave, sounded like a tanpura creating the musical ambience, when the flute complimented it in the higher scale. The cimbalom looked and was played like the Indian santoor, sounding somewhere in between the piano and santoor.
The concert concluded with a piece from Romania called F-Sharp Minor. The best part of this mesmerising musical confluence was the nature of presentation with instant improvisations, just like the Indian music. One also felt that the Romanian folklore blends easily with North Scandinavian folklore. And all of them had shades of our ragas like Kirwani and Madhuwanti. Shashank’s interplay beautifully blended with tabla’s repartees and their improvisatory nature. The engaging evening was a total contrast from the usual sight of a Western music concert, where they must read the musical score.
