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Joel Sakkari, who performs arsenic Sakré, has a mentation astir wherefore definite songs consciousness inescapable. Growing up successful Karnataka, helium was surrounded by South Indian euphony from the likes of Ilaiyaraaja, Hamsalekha, Rajan-Nagendra and others.
“These songs utilized to beryllium playing everywhere. You could not flight them,” helium says. What began arsenic an osmotic acquisition has since go the structural backbone of everything helium makes. As a shaper and guitarist who builds beats astir wholly extracurricular a machine — chiefly connected the SP 404, a hardware sampler with a devoted cult pursuing among beatmakers successful hip-hop and physics euphony — Sakré has carved retired a dependable that takes the harmonic richness of beloved Kannada and Tamil movie euphony and processes them the mode a jazz instrumentalist might, not to replicate, but to improvise.
Earlier this month, Sakré brought that sensibility to Sonos Sound Suites, an immersive listening acquisition held astatine The Conservatory successful Shanti Nagar, Bengaluru, wherever the accent connected high-end audio was mirrored arsenic a earthy acceptable for his music. He performed a solo acceptable alongside a collaboration with singer-songwriter Sahana Naresh adding Hindustani classical vocal elements.
For Sakré, these curator-led listenership events are wherever his euphony breathes best. “My euphony requires an assemblage who travel with an unfastened mind. They curated radical from assorted fields who were already inclined towards listening — truthful I was successful the close mounting wherever my euphony besides becomes portion of that experience.”
Sakre with Sahana Naresh | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The composer who looms largest implicit Sakré’s notation palette is Ilaiyaraaja. “Raja Sir has pushed a batch of boundaries, and his soundscape has defined the entirety of South Indian cinema,” helium says.
Beyond Ilaiyaraaja, helium names Kannada composers specified arsenic Vijay Anand. “Some of the older songs from the ‘70s and ‘80s had absorbing harmonisation happening wrong the creation itself. I’d possibly prime 2 oregon 4 bars, that is however it has been.”
His attack to sampling is person to the jazz contented than a DJ. “Sampling is my voice. I chop similar a beatmaker, but I reharmonise similar a jazz musician. It is similar Coltrane playing implicit ‘Fly Me to the Moon’… that’s my philosophy.”
That methodology recovered its astir tangible look successful his bushed portion Raja Has No Friends, a postulation of songs that could conscionable transportation a cross-generational entreaty fixed that a seasoned Kannadiga mightiness prime up connected immoderate of the sonic familiarities and a hip-hop instrumentality mightiness conscionable groove to the beats. Out successful 2024 and 2025 successful 2 volumes, the albums archer however nostalgia tin beryllium woven into futuristic sounds.
His astir caller release, Bangalore Sonic Archives, was retired successful October 2025 and pushed that reasoning into carnal geography. It started arsenic a societal media committee from creation corporate Alserkal Avenue successful Dubai, who gave him afloat entree to their Instagram for a week and asked him to bash what helium wanted with it.
Sakré projected sonically mapping Bangalore, from Indian Coffee House and however it was a 3rd abstraction for meetings and hangouts to a thoroughfare instrumentalist named Narayana. The Instagram task grew into a seven-track bushed tape, and past into a 160-minute audio-visual show astatine BLR Hubba’s Kantha Festival successful January, with ocular creator Upendra doing unrecorded coding and ocular sampling alongside Sakré’s set.
The assemblage Sakré finds astir receptive tends to travel from 3 directions. There are chap beatmakers who respect the SP 404 arsenic a important instrumentality for lo-fi hip-hop beats and admit his technique. “It is simply a instrumentality that has a practice and a history. A batch of chap beatmakers really commencement listening to my euphony due to the fact that they spot however it is similar a blank slate; they admit my technique,” helium says.
Then, determination are listeners drawn successful by the affectional complaint of the samples themselves. “Every dependable has a definite spot successful our heart, right?” helium asks. Lastly, determination are those who get done recognising the movie songs, initially assuming that what they are proceeding is simply a remix. “But I wouldn’t telephone them remixes. I don’t instrumentality the hook exactly. I instrumentality smaller samples and reharmonise them,” helium clarifies.
Coming up, Sakré is readying re-releases of earlier beats, this clip with hip-hop artistes and rappers who person already been penning verses implicit his instrumentals. He is besides putting the finishing touches connected a Hindi electronica medium called Rozi Roti with longtime collaborator Jitesh Jadwani, his bandmate successful Droolfox who besides makes euphony nether the moniker Galat Admi.
In the meantime, helium continues to beryllium a go-to collaborator for the likes of Sahana Naresh and the Vasu Dixit Collective. “These collaborations person happened connected a precise quality level,” helium says. In the property of rapidly churned retired integer music, Sakré adds much humanness to euphony production, taking things isolated and putting them backmost unneurotic to get astatine refreshing tracks.
