�Cocaine Dixit�
That�s what he�s called, thanks to Like Cocaine, a heady song he sings at all his concerts. So you think this is another of those engineering college bands smashed on dope, synths and drums? Sorry, Raghupathy Dixit doesn�t smoke, doesn�t drink. And the two other members of his band, H. N. Bhaskar and Ravichandran Rao, are very talented south Indian classical musicians, hardly the sort you�d associate with the cocaine crowd.
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Meet Raghu.
The fire starter
To say that Rahghu�s voice hits you between the eyes would be an understatement. One moment he knocks the wind out of you with his intensity, the next moment he�s touching you deep with his gentleness, and then before you know it, he�s making you grin with his youthful enthusiasm and whacky humour! Whatever your taste or mood, this is one guy whom it is impossible to be indifferent to. He is like a heady breath of fresh air with his guitar and huge heartwarming smile to accompany him. Without exception one can experience the quintessential Raghu at every single performance of Antaragni. An amazingly powerful voice with textured layers, lyrics which you feel were born out of deep personal feeling and sincere conviction, and a genuine warmth that makes you want to go to him and say: �Hey, I understand exactly how you feel�! Yes, this guy rings true, right down to the last lyric. Ask anyone who�s heard him sing just once, the reaction is always: �Raghu? Of course I remember him!� But then, how can anyone forget him? It is not every day that you are shaken up by such music.
A native of Mysore, Raghu brings with him a background rich in the creation of beauty and expression. A trained classical dancer (Vidwat in Bharathanatyam) and a Gold Medal award winner for securing the first rank in his Master�s Degree in Microbiology from the University of Mysore, Raghu has never learnt music formally. He created his own way, learning to play the guitar looking into a book.
Align Me, �like Cocaine, Father, I�ll Still Love You, Who Said Things Have changed For Me, No Man Will Ever Love You, Like I Do and Material Minds are some of his songs which have become favourites with the crowd in Bangalore.
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Antaragni the journey
Antaragni first formed as a duo in 1997, when Raghupathy Dixit (Raghu), a self-taught guitar player and songwriter, met H.N. Bhaskar, a professional Carnatic Violinist. Together, they evolved the unusual Antaragni sound. Since coming out of the small town environs of Mysore, their home town, and into the comparatively more active pop music scene of Bangalore, they have added to it an itinerant flautist and percussionist to give it a fillip that now strains to a rightful place in the genre of music.
Raghu�s meaning-laden lyrics could not have found a better vehicle than his own richly textured voice, and a better accompanist than the virtuoso violin work of Bhaskar. In their still sparse repertoire of songs, Like Cocaine and Mysore Se Ayee Re are enthralling. Whenever I hear them sung, I cannot help rack my memory for a folk rock musician I heard way back in university. Someone whose similarity to Raghu�s sound is uncanny. I shall add that in as soon it comes back to me.
However, back to what is, and what will surely be, Antaragni will soon be out on CD and tape. They are one of the eight world-music bands selected for a compilation album due for release this year by the new Indigo Music Label. A complete Antaragni album is slated for release sometime early next year under the same label.
Fanning the Flame of Fusion
The Antaragni band comprises an acoustic guitarist-vocalist, a violinist, and a flautist and tambourine player. The sound they produce - a folk-rock meets Carnatic kind of sound, has the power of a young Dylan at his full-throated urgency, while still retaining the rustic simplicity of a cowherd singing to himself on a lazy knoll.
The raw honesty and contemporaneity of the vocals, the strum of the acoustic guitar, the unusually plaintive wail of the violin and the thrum of the kanjira (the classical Carnatic equivalent of a tambourine), the underlying flute -these form the elements of ecstasy as it were.
However, Antaragni�s sound cannot yet be called Carnatic Jazz-fusion and then be consigned to the path L. Shankar and Subramanian have taken. Their inspiration still comes from rock -the folk, country, pop and funk varieties. All this frolicking on a bed of Carnatic classical and folk structure to create heady, unmistakable and irresistible music. Not since Dylan, have I heard lyrics that reach out for you the way Antaragni�s do. And as for their brand of fusion, they have opened up my ears to yet another fantastic way in which Indian music can meet its western counterpart.
Courtesy: www.oyeindia.com
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Meet
Mysore. H.N. Bhaskar.
The Violin Maestro
H.N. Bhaskar is a professional violinist from Mysore, presently based in Chennai. He has been playing the violin for the past 15 years. He learnt the basic nuances of Carnatic classical music from his own father Vidwan Sri. H.K. Narasimhamurthy, a renowned violinist and staff musician of the All India Radio, Mysore.
Presently, Bhaskar is studying music at the Madras University and also undergoing advanced training under the able guidance of the violin virtuoso Vidwan Shri. M.S. Gopalakrishnan.
Bhaskar is being observed by the pundits as one of the young rising stars in the field of Carnatic Music. He is now the artist in demand as an accompanist by almost all the senior artists in Chennai.
Apart from sweeping a lot of prizes and awards, he recently performed at the annual music festival conducted by the prestigious Music Academy of Madras and won accolades from all corners.
Last year Bhaskar went on an overseas concert tour to the United States of America, where his brilliance as an innovative musician was noticed and talked about. Bhaskar has a keen ear for western classical, pop, rock and country music styles and has an uncanny talent to mix his Carnatic classical style with western style of music.
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