The Score Magazine August 2019 issue! | Page 50

MUKESH AMARAN ALBUM ARTicle ABHISHEK CHOUDHURY Our Artist for the month is Abhishek, an illustrator and designer from Guwahati, Assam. From a very young age, Abhishek has been exposed to some of the greatest bands to exist like The Beatles, Eagles, Jimi Hendrix. Growing up in the north east, and being surrounded by music, Abhishek took to visualizing everything he would listen to. He was emotional drawn towards recreating the song or the meaning or the story behind. The path to working with musicians and creating artworks was only natural for this talented artist. Starting off with bands from college and bands of friends, Abhishek’s recent collaboration with Chabuk is definitely a head-turner. Having lived in many different places around the country and having experienced different cultures from a young age of 16 has shaped Abhishek’s understanding of the medium through which he communicates. In those years of being in new places, music has been the acquainting factor, further deepening his love for the artform. “Music really helped me by being this unifying bond or like this language that broke the ice between two strangers. It allowed me to talk to strangers. Just allowed me to speak to people who I won’t speak to otherwise”. Working with artists came naturally to Abhishek. “I've gotten to work with some really great people and hopefully this journey continues. I have worked with people across different genres whose music I happen to like and I feel 48 The Score Magazine highonscore.com like they also enjoy my work and together we create some beautiful stuff together and that's something which I really look forward to doing again.” If your client is an artist too, I guess it is much more of a fun collaboration. When Abhishek takes up a project, he expects to be in- sync with the artist he is collaborating with. He gauges for a connection, not necessarily in terms of the music, or in terms of their work (for other clients), but in terms of any sorted of underlying philosophy that they share or an idea that they believe in. Having the client in a more comfortable headspace allows Abhishek to better get into the music, creation process, better understand it and translate exactly what the music speaks into a visual piece that does not take away or stay behind the music, but is a perfect visual translation of the album or the single; if need be. As an illustrator and designer, Abhishek feels that sticking to one particular style is restrictive. He likes to experiment with pop cultural juxtapositions on everyday social and political happenings. A language that he has developed, that doesn’t require the viewer to have any qualification to feel and love the piece and understand it. We will continue to receive some awesome album arts as long as we have people like Abhishek behind them.