MUMBAI: Performing for the second time at Mumbai’s Blue Frog, Netherlands based jazz quartet The Ploctones will launch their latest album â€?050′ in India on Blue Frog Records.
Blue Frog Records will be distributing the album which will also be available online at:http://www.bluefrogsounds.com/musicstore
Anton Goudsmit (guitar) formed the Ploctones to perform a series of his compositions commissioned by Dutch NPS Radio in 2001. In 2004 former VPRO (a culturally radical media forum) radio presenter Ren?© de Rooij organised a live cd recording at the Jazz op het Dak festival, an event directed by him and featured on VPRO television. Under De Rooij’s management the Ploctones has emerged as a very creative and innovative group that is capable of combining grooves and improvisation seamlessly. The highly inflammable drumming of Martijn Vink, the solid and virtuoso bass playing of Jeroen Vierdag and the intelligent approach of Efra??m Trujillo on sax, complement Anton’s music and give this band it’s unique sound.
They perform 20, 21 and 22 November at The Blue Frog at 10.30 pm.
ALBUMS RELEASED ON BLUE FROG RECORDS
ARTIST: Smoke
ALBUM: Smoke Signals
ALBUM DESCRIPTION: ‘Smoke’ is the collaborative project of accomplished Mumbai composers, producers and musicians Ashutosh Phatak and Dhruv Ghanekar (better known as “Ashu and Dhruv”). The result is their studio album Smoke Signals (Blue Frog Records, 2008), a twisted, futuristic vision of India in different languages. Traversing time, space, cultures and instrumentation, Smoke Signals successfully and sensitively brings together an impressive variety of musical styles including Western symphony, bebop, Sufi rock, Indian classical, catchy pop, traditional thumri, electronica and blues – the natural, organic result of each partner’s musical evolution.
ARTIST: Shaa’ir + Func
ALBUM: New Day – The Love Album
ALBUM DESCRIPTION: Rated one of Vh1’s Top Ten emerging artists out of India, the New York + Mumbai duo Shaa’ir (Urdu for “poet”) + Func (derived from “funk” and “functional”) describe their distinctive sound as “lovebeat”, and have been “making consciousness fun since 2006”. S+F’s debut release New Day: The Love Album (Re-released on Blue Frog Records, 2008) brims with bass-heavy rhythms, poetic lyrics and haunting synth melodies, fusing spoken-word, funk, R&B, electronica and a dash of jazz. With themes that are both universal and intensely personal, The Love Album heralds fresh energy and a new hope.
ARTIST: Shaa’ir + Func
ALBUM: Light Tribe
ALBUM DESCRIPTION: Music that builds bridges across genres, stereotypes, countries, governments, race and gender while praising “the highest power of all, Love” is the foundation of New York + Mumbai duo Shaa’ir + Func. With their critically acclaimed debut album New Day: The Love Album and a London, New York and India tour under their belts, the dynamic, trans-Atlantic “lovebeat” pair returns with their sophomore release Light Tribe (Blue Frog Records, 2008). A tribute to “the pioneers of this increasingly small earth”, Light Tribe is edgy, energetic and transcendental in true S+F style: sensual melodies meet distorted electronic bleeps, driving basslines are layered over groovy funk rhythms, and the overall sound shows a newfound maturity and clear direction in the band’s development.
ARTIST: Vivek Rajagopalan
ALBUM: Moving Images
DESCRIPTION: Headline: Vivek’s new Album is an impression of today’s India: traditional, funky, global, dynamic, and contagiously pulsating.
Combining Carnatic, Hindustani, jazz, folk, electronic, and drum’n bass Vivek Rajagopalan creates rippling sound-scapes that are edgy as much as international. If world music today is a melting pot of cultures & genres, then Vivek’s music is a drop of spicy red curry in the concoction.
With his newest album Moving Images releasing this July he merges melody (a hallmark of Indian music) with grooves that you’ll hear in various corners of the planet. Together it makes a heady mix of energy and melody; something you’ll find difficult to remove from your head, and stop your feet from tapping to.
ARTIST: John McLaughlin
ALBUM: Floating Point
DESCRIPTION: John Mclaughlin takes the Western Jazz-Fusion approach in â€?Floating Point’, but with a band comprising mainly of renowned Indian musicians. The core group includes keyboardist Louiz Banks, percussionist Sivamani, and drummer Ranjit Barot, as well as French bassist Hadrien Feraud.
ARTIST: Sanjay Divecha
ALBUM: Full Circle
DESCRIPTION: Sanjay has crossed many borders, physical & cultural, in pursuit of his vision – a vision of a world community, expressed through music.
Returning to India in 2003 in search of his musical & cultural roots, Sanjay has spent the last 2 years exploring the sounds and languages of his heritage, and recording his new album “FULL CIRCLE”. Accompanying him on the album are the creme de la creme of musicians from his home town Mumbai including Kailash Kher, Kunal Ganjawalla, Ranjit Barot, Karl Peters and Vivek Rajagopalan among others
ARTIST: Ashu
ALBUM: Sigh of an Angel
ALBUM DESCRIPTION: Mumbai-born composer Ashu’s music is the stuff of dreams. Opulent, lucid and at times unsettling, Ashu’s mystic sound scapes artfully weave stories of love and loss, of hope and fear: stories that are at once intensely personal and invitingly universal. His debut album â€?Sigh of an Angel’ is rooted in duality, and exists in fantastic worlds that are intimate, expansive and rich in their visual imagery.