The Score Magazine - Archive January 2017 issue! | Seite 33

Later “Moonarra” happened and the sound was intriguingly
different and we have done some amazing tours and been
successful at that. Thanks to the Manis ( Dr. TAS Mani and Vid
RA Ramamani), I was introduced to the duo
“ FOOD” and the subsequent ECM recording ‘Mercurial Balm’ was
hailed by many critics as a Hall Mark album in more ways than
one. An Indo-French collaboration (thanks to Alliance Francaise
Bangalore) with artiste Jeremy Labelle from the ‘Reunion Islands’
was a very exciting and unique one. Also, I released an album with
Italian Musician Guitarist Eraldo Bernocchi which was making
waves internationally, released by Rarenoise records titled
‘Invisible Strings. Recently I also released an album as Dr Prakash
Sontakke Group called “Progressive Raga” which is another
new experiment with ambient sounds and what not. The album
features Karthik Mani, Kedar Nayak, and Shadrach Solomon
which is now at the Top 20 in iTunes chart. I don't know weather
“broke into” makes sense, but small spaces of our own creative
and unique space is what has made me happy.
clutter of Popular Music?
Its fun to see all the new things going on. There’s a new wave of
fusion which is kind of very power oriented where each player
is “Fast and Furious”. Its all different ways to achieve the same
thing. I love Popular music and as a matter of fact, all world
music projects came out of Pop projects which did one of those
experiments which made them a cult like status. Our project
Progressive Raga is one such emblem of change to come and the
sounds of progress are already echoing.
How did ‘Winds of Samsaara’ happen?
Ricky Kej and I go a long way back when we met at Omshree
Studios where I had given music for a English film by Rajesh
Murthy called ‘The Peak’ in 2002. He liked my work and we hit it
off from there and I have worked on almost all his major projects
since then. It is a wonderful achievement and more of such projects
need to be happening.
What’s next for you?
I am working on small projects at schools which can focus on
developing instrumental music as a personality and character
building tool for all the happy future citizens who will get to hear
a lot of music in the “ears” to come. Knowing some instrument
will make them a part of this silent movement called “Listen and
Play”.
With so many international collaborations, how easy o r tough is the crossover for
you? Tell us more about your collaborative process
When I work on a project the last thing I do is think of how the end
sound will be like. Approaching with a mindset to listen rather
than just perform is an important ingredient of any collaboration.
If there is too much of skill display, believe me after some time
the listener as well as musicians will grow out of it. How to form a
new sound together should be the primary objective. For example,
Progressive Raga has some tracks which we have played for years
but when we started to record, the result was very unique and
different sounding. If you listen it will surely help.
Coming from a family of music educators, how important is music education to
you? How have you taken the torch forward?
I have done my PhD and have a triple masters in Vocal, Violin, and
Guitar. My mom and dad passed the bug onto me very well. The
Phd is about the development of the Slide Guitar as a prominent
instrument in Indian Classical music. I am also attached with the
Shankar Mahadevan Academy of Online music education and I
believe that Online Music education is here to make a big mark.
My wife Chaitra Sontakke is associated with the Hindustani Music
Department of the Academy. I am willing to share all the time and
am a part of Octavium which is a beautiful place for young and
sensitive minds to take a creative shape.
What’s the reality like for a Veteran Classical musician to be stuck amidst the
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