NaTaRaj XT —
East Meets West; East Wins !
A unique band was recently in the city to perform at
the launch of music portal talentduniya.com, a site which promotes
musical talent. NaTaRaj XT, is not just another 'band ' of French hippies, but a group devoted
to Indian classical music.
Pierre, a member of NaTaRaj XT, had never in his
life played an instrument before. One day in Paris he heard a
Pandit Ravi Shankar record.
"What is that instrument?
" was his first reaction. "I want to play
it ," was the second. And thus began his 20-year-old affair
with the Sitar.
"I feel more at home in India
and with Indian music than anywhere or anything else ," says
the monsieur, smiling. One month later, he was playing it. And, he
adds, "I know nothing about Western classical
music ."
Another band member, Richard, heard Ali
Akbar Khan's Sarod playing, and was
hooked. For both the musicians, India and Indian music is like
coming home. "The sound of the Sarod is so familiar, like it's
coming from so long ago and it's like coming back to my original
country," says Richard mystically.
On the road to India, the two met somewhere in
Kabul. Both had been learning - Pierre with Pramod
Kumar, then Pandit Ravi Shankar and later, in Delhi
with Deboo Chaudhary, while Richard went to a music
school in California and then to Calcutta.
The association grew, and what happened next was
inevitable. Three years ago they decided to form NaTaRaj.
What's with the choice of name?
Richard
exclaims, "Aahhh………Nataraj. It's all to do with
Nataraj; he dances and it is a sort of re-creation. Shiva means lot
to me, and so the name was like a pranam ," he explains.
The band believes in 'live
' performances only, and sticks to the original Indian
tradition of improvising. They came out with an album of traditional
Indian music. Until they met Kapi, the techno guy.
Kapi heard Richard playing, and they did a piece
together with his electronic drums. It clicked.
"Before, people used to sit and
listen to our music. Now suddenly with Kapi, they were dancing
," says Richard. So, NaTaRaj became NaTaRajXT and gave birth
to the term "ethno-techno."
They weren't imitating anyone, and they stayed pure
to the ragas. They brought out another album and played at Medium,
the music festival held every summer in France.
Though Kapi has been playing the drums and the
guitar for 24 years, he is unfamiliar with Indian music.
"The beats are very strange, " he says. He took
to playing the Tabla three months back, but still learning. And he
would rather not learn from any teacher. As he says. "I would rather learn by ear ."
Today, their music on the Net gets some 20,000 hits
per month. And they get encouraging feedback, like "your music is full of heart and spirituality
."
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