Agam - Carnatic Rock

This contemporary Carnatic Rock act from Bangalore performs on November 11 in Kochi and November 19 in Chennai

October 09, 2012 05:13 pm | Updated November 13, 2021 10:22 am IST

Agam

Agam

Agam is a multi award-winning seven-member contemporary Carnatic Rock act from Bangalore. All the band members are working professionals in companies like Amazon, Adobe, Flipkart, and Zynga, but this doesn’t deter them from pursuing their dreams and passion for music. They have been doing with panache since the inception of Agam in 2004. A regular at Hard Rock Cafe in Bangalore and other cities, they have also performed at Storm Festival, Octoberfest, and Mad Festival besides other renowned concert venues in the south.

Agam’s music combines the melodic scales and rhythm structures of Carnatic music with the principles and tonal elegance of Western music to arrive at a sound that is unique, modern and instantly appealing.

Agam has won the Oohlalala Music reality show judged by A.R. Rahman and the Bite My Music Global Awards, the largest independent music awards of South Asia, for best collaboration with Shreya Ghoshal and for best instrumental

Agam derives its name from the ancient Tamil word which translates as 'the inner self'. A lot of their song writing is directly inspired by Carnatic classical music, and the essence of their sound lies in how they bring in prog-rock and metal elements into an Indian melody line. That’s why they call their genre Carnatic Rock. Odd time signatures and progressive riffing is something that shows up in most of their compositions. They believe that oversimplification is a problem with many fusion styles, and their effort has been to retain the character of the individual music forms and ensure that the arrangement does not eat into the soul of either form. In the song ‘Rudra’, they pay homage to Shiva with powerful vocals and breathtaking guitar sections. In ‘Dhanasree Thillana’, they take a popular Carnatic classical composition and re-interpret it with lilting melodies and rhythmical flourishes. Or they take a traditional Kerala boat song (Thonnipaatu) and enrich it with chorus and guitar sections.

YouTube links

>A.R.Rahman on Agam

>Shreya Ghoshal on Agam

>Rahul Ram (Indian Ocean band) on Agam

>Agam on Coke Studio

>Agam on MTV Roots

>Music of contemporary India

>Brahmas dance

>Rudra

Duration: 90 mins

Interval: 10 mins

Dates & Venues:

Nov 11, Kochi; Kerala Fine Art Hall - >Book tickets for Kochi show

Nov 19 Chennai; Music Academy - >Book tickets for Chennai show

Band

Harish Sivaramakrishnan (Vocals/Violin)

Ganesh Ram Nagarajan (Drums)

Vignesh Lakshminarayanan (Bass)

T Praveen Kumar (Electric Guitars)

Sivakumar Nagarajan (Indian Ethnic Percussions)

Jagadis Natarajan (Rhythm Guitars)

Swaminathan Seetharaman (Keyboards)

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