The album Treekam blends Carnatic ragas and Naga folk tunes with jazz and world music elements

It was portion listening to music, implicit meal 2 years ago, that musician-producer Sandeep Chowta and Carnatic guitarist Abhay Nayampally, brainstormed astir releasing an instrumental album. After galore discussions and compositions, they decided to enactment successful guitarist Arenlong, from Nagaland. According to Abhay, the thought of fusing Carnatic melodies and Naga people tunes with jazz and satellite euphony elements sounded unsocial and the effect is Treekam, a five-track medium released connected Sandeep’s Namma Music.

Produced by Sandeep, on with taste curator Arpito Gope, the medium besides features British bassist Seb Read, American drummer Jerrod ‘J-Rod’ Sullivan and American keyboardist Tom Schuman (a subordinate of the renowned jazz fusion set Spyro Gyra). Two tracks person chants by Mengu Suokhire and the Nagaland Folkloric group.

Abhay, trained successful Carnatic euphony nether mandolin maestro U. Shrinivas, has besides performed with Tom for the creation ‘Comfortable Silences’ connected the keyboardist’s 2024 album, I Am Schuman. In Treekam, they collaborate connected ‘Swan Song’, which is successful raga Hamsadhwani. Says Abhay, “He heard a fewer songs and peculiarly liked this one. He added his beauteous imaginativeness to the track. Hamsadhwani, by itself, is simply a elemental raga, but helium added conscionable the close magnitude of nuances.”

The sanction Treekam, derived from the Sanskrit connection trikam, refers to a triad oregon convergence. It’s a metaphor for the 3 philharmonic traditions shaping the grounds — Carnatic music, sounds inspired by Naga tribal chants and planetary textures. According to Arenlong, his biggest situation was to construe accepted Naga euphony onto the guitar. He adds, “Carnatic euphony was wholly caller to me, but I heard a batch of Abhay’s enactment and recovered the genre to beryllium rich. The operation worked retired well.”

Abhay has composed 3 tunes including ‘Swan Song’. The opening track, ‘Spunky Town’, is based connected raga Abheri. Says Abhay, “It’s 1 of my favourite ragas and though I person recorded it before, I wanted to bash thing different. The happening astir Abheri is that contempt being a accepted raga, it has got much contextual worth adjacent successful the modern setting. It conscionable fits successful with what we wanted to do, which was thing catchy and a small faster.”

The different track, ‘Divine Directions’, is simply a substance of ragas, with Arenlong bringing successful his ain improvisational touch. Says Abhay, “I started with raga Arabhi but thought I’d power it up a bit. So I got the wholly antithetic Sindhu Bhairavi successful the solo. The opposition went disconnected well.”

Regarding his compositions, Arenlong says, “Nagaland has galore tribes which person antithetic types of chants. Yet, by the mode the notes are articulated, you tin marque retired it’s a Naga tribal song. The archetypal song, ‘Blending Tunes’, is based connected a chant from my tribe, called Ao. The different portion ‘Zakto Tssoa’ is inspired by the Lotha tribe. We added chants arsenic they supply a bully layering.”

A victor of aggregate guitar competitions, Arenlong is known to make a dependable evoking wood rhythms, tone dances and communal storytelling. Abhay, connected the different hand, has utilized the U. Shrinivas mandolin benignant to make a chiseled Carnatic guitar sound. Treekam is simply a peculiar experimentation for some the artistes.