A collaboration of Carnatic and Flamenco tunes

It was his love for flamenco music that made violinist Ambi Subramaniam collaborate with Spanish flautist Jorge Pardo recently. Titled Mirage, the track is all about Carnatic and flamenco music, with elements of rock, which sees artistes like Jorge, Varun Murali, Frijo Francis, Keith Peters, Karthik Mani, DSR Murthy, Ambi and Bindu Subramaniam collaborate.Speaking about the track, Ambi says, “Bindu and I first performed with Jorge at the Times Swarsangam festival, at which we performed live on stage. We wanted to create something new and different for the show. Since Jorge has worked with Indian musicians in the past, he is aware of the nuances of it, so working with him was a complete joy. However, after we performed it on stage, I wanted to do something different with the track, which is why we added rock music to it and recorded the track in a studio.” Mirage, says Ambi, is an amalgamation of Indian classical with Western tunes that captures the essence of both worlds.
Ambi adds that it is the similarities between flamenco and Carnatic that makes it such a unique mix of tunes. “I personally love flamenco and there are so many similarities and things that integrate very well with Indian music. All of their rhythms work very well with Indian rhythms; they use a lot of nodes that are similar to our ragas,” says Ambi, adding, “But the best part is that Jorge is a fantastic improviser. It’s easier to make music with people like him, because you don’t really have to tell him what to do. He’s a legend in his field.” Does that mean that there could be more such collaborations in the future? “Hopefully, yes. We have something in the pipeline, and Bindu and I are looking at collaborating with different artistes,” Ambi sums up.