Carnatic Music Ensemble Enthrals Audience In Odisha Capital

 Bhubaneswar: The third evening of the 24th OMC Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award festival at Rabindra Mandap here on Friday featured the much-awaited performance by Bengaluru-based contemporary Carnatic Progressive Rock Band, Agam.

Agam in Tamil means ‘inner-self’ and this band truly presented a beautiful reconstitution of the southern classical music form in a new style that had the audience on the edge of their seats for two hours.

Nikhil V Pai (sound engineer), Harish Sivaramakrishnan (vocals and violin), Swamy Seetharaman (keyboards and lyricist), T Praveen Kumar (lead guitar), Aditya Kashyap (bass guitar and backing vocals), Sivakumar Nagarajan (ethnic percussion), Jagadish Natarajan (rhythm guitar) and Yadhunandan (drums).

The hall reverberated with the  booming sounds of the percussion that seamlessly blended with the other instruments.

Sivaramakrishnan, the front man of Agam, said, “Our music is more Progressive Metal in nature than Rock, with Carnatic Music played over it. We do not attempt to present a fusion of styles as this would mean adapting an aesthetic blend of both the idioms. We try to stay true to the identity of both genres and are extremely happy to present our repertoire to the Bhubaneswar audience for the very first time.”

The band presented tracks from both their albums, ‘The Inner Self Awakens’, and ‘A Dream to Remember’, with numbers such as Brahma’s Dance, Kooth ‘Koothu’ Over Coffee, Onwards and Upwards and Rangapura Vihaara, striking a special chord with the audience.

The interplay of percussion, keyboard, violin and guitars in their track Brahma’s Dance was exceptional. Their second album, ‘A Dream to Remember’, which was released in November 2017 comprised a unique mix of eight songs, four of which were Carnatic Kritis and the others, songs in Malayalam, Tamil and Sanskrit.

For the last two years, Agam’s work has been based on traditional Indian compositions with a unique style that has enabled them to make a mark in the field of independent music.

Their efforts have brought out a combination of the semantics and grammar of both the musical genres with a distinctive style that is a pleasantly surprising yet familiar to the audiences.

State Home Department Additional Chief Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy, Tourism Department Director and Additional Secretary Dr Nitin Bhanudas Jawale, SBI Chief General Manager Praveena Kala and Mayfair Hotels and Resorts Executive Director Soubhagya Mohapatra were guests on the occasion.

The fourth day of the festival on Saturday will feature Kathak maestro Pandit Rajendra Gangani and a solo recital by the immensely talented new-age violinist Ambi Subramaniam.

The festival organised by Srjan commenced on September 5 here with an evening of Odissi dance and Carnatic music with Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal as the chief guest.

The festival began with the solo Odissi recital by Rajashri Praharaj. After Pushpanjali, sh presented a pure dance piece, Hamsadhwani Pallavi set to Raga Hamsadhwani and Ekatali. The dance piece was choreographed by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and the music was composed by Pt Bhubanewar Mishra.