Striking a musical mix

fusion music. the term conjures up guitars, drums and eastern string instruments. but striking notes had something more — a traditional finnish instrument kantele. organised by the embassy of finland and indian council of cultural relations presented an evening of world music at rabindra sadan at on wednesday. the programme started with ustad kamal sabri on the sarangi, pt. anindo chatterjee on tabla and sudeshna bhattacharya on the tanpura playing raga madhubanti in teen taal. this was followed by our friends from finland — minna raskinen on the kantele, jukka tolonen on the guitar and markku ounaskari on the drums. they started the programme with evening song followed by i'll buy a violet for my mother ending with churchbells. the finale came with our very own indian artistes joining the finnish group with tabla and sarangi. indian impressions, a composition of jukka tolonen was spell binding where all the musicians entered into frenzied jamming. tolonen is on his second visit to india after 1999. he said: "my interest for indian music inspired me towards this composition." kamal sabri said: "it was an excellent experience to play the kantele since it sounds so much like the santoor."