Breath of fresh air

Zakir Hussain, John McLaughlin and Shankar Mahadevan

If there's one piece of music that should make it to your playlist this week, it is the exceptional collaboration between composer Shankar Mahadevan, multiple-Grammy winning percussionist Zakir Hussain and global fusion pioneer John McLaughlin. Mahadevan says the 10-minute video Sakhi began as a "fun experiment", only to evolve into a more meaningful piece. He tells mid-day, "The initial idea was to work together and come up with a new project. For certain sections, I would sing freely and improvise [with] alaaps, and he [McLaughlin] would play harmonies to back it. He would ask me to send one piece of music, and would send it back after recording [his piece on it]. We were both thrilled with the creation. It edges on being a spiritual, meditative, and calming piece."

As Mahadevan renders the track against the tunes of Hussain's tabla and McLaughlin's guitar - with their jugalbandi gathering pace into the fifth minute - it is tough to imagine that this creation was worked on virtually. Mahadevan, now accustomed to working remotely, says a fine sense of technology is essential in creating such offerings. He refers to this song as the trio's attempt to offer a breath of fresh air to masses, in the midst of "negativity and distress". "It's a play on thumri. The lyrics were written by Zakir bhai. You can call it a romantic song. Krishna and Radha play Holi, and as they do so, her chunari gets drenched. She says she is worried, because people continue to look at her, and perhaps also because she may be falling in love. It is beautiful."

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