Described by Billboard magazine as a ‘visionary composer and producer’, Karsh Kale is one of global music’s brightest stars. In the past 12 years as a solo recording artiste, producer, composer, live performer, tabla player and DJ, Karsh has set the world of electronic fusion on fire and has helped to create a genre of music that continues to influence an entire generation. His body of work has been cause for fans and critics alike to claim Kale as a pioneer and a trail-blazer, not only opening doors for his own career but for an entire scene to emerge in the world of electronica and fusion music.

Karsh Kale has also developed a reputation as a genre bending collaborator and a world renowned tabla player and musician, exploring the worlds of electronica, Indian classical music, rock, jazz fusion and hip hop that has led him to work with some of the most renowned artistes from around the globe. Kale continues to reinvent his ever-evolving sound and has established himself as one of the world’s most sought after fusion artistes.

Midival Punditz is the brainchild of childhood friends — Gaurav Raina and Tapan Raj. In 1997, after being bored with the remix and Bollywood-driven music scene in India, the boys started producing original electronic music and sending out demo tracks to different music labels and other producers. Simultaneously, their monthly parties, ‘Cyber Mehfil’ started becoming hugely popular and soon achieved cult status. Their efforts were quickly recognised by other artistes and producers in the US and UK. Word spread about the boys, as they came to be known as ‘The new sound of 21st century India...'

It was in 2000 that Six Degrees Records, home label of producer friend, Karsh Kale, became interested in signing the Punditz. By 2001 they were the first electronic music act from India to ever sign an international album deal. Since that time they have produced extensively with Six Degrees Records — three studio albums, a remix album and a compilation. They have been featured internationally, on over 50 compilations, across the globe.

And it’s heartening that our own Angaraag Mahanta, popularly known as Papon, has played live with them in the prestigious Paléo Festival recently in Switzerland. More than thirty years after its first edition, which as the ‘First Folk Festival’ drew an audience of some 1,800 people in the town assembly rooms in Nyon, Paléo Festival is today one of Europe’s, nay the world’s, most important musical events. Each year, more than 120 concerts are on offer to the 227,000 members of the public who fill the festival's 84-hectare site Asse (car parks included), situated above the town of Nyon.

To this day, over four million people have contributed to this unwavering popular success. Over the last few years, the festival has been sold out before it even started and enjoys an ever-growing reputation. In 2008, over 670 media representatives covered a highly colourful edition.

Says an elated Angaraag: “We played on the 27th and the 28th of July, 2009. It is an experience very difficult to express in words. The festival was so big in magnitude and so well organized... It had food, clothing, art installations, pubs, bars, games in every corner, and lots of various entertainment stalls.”

Incidentally, this is for the first time that any band from India has played at this festival. The festival organisers so liked the performance of the Indians that they were asked to extend their set by 40 minutes!

This year’s festival also saw the likes of Tracy Chapman, Fat Boy Slim, Prodigy, and Moby enthralling the audience. “It was a sight to behold! More than 200,000 people were singing together with Tracy Chapman when she sang her hit number Fast Car,” recalls Angaraag.

Bornali Konwar