It all started in the winter of 2021 when three brilliant musicians — Indrajit Indro Dey, Anubrata Chatterjee and Pratik Srivastava — came home one day and we had a jam on our terrace. Since we did have a pet peeve about how instrumental music has been taking a back seat for quite a long time as compared to the popularity of songs, we thought of trying out something old-school during these new-age times. The jamming session gradually turned into a very structured one where we tried to assimilate four tracks of a certain duration to enable an EP as is the norm nowadays. However, the objective was clearly to ensure that the tracks have a contemporary feel to them. Somehow there were three tracks which we all agreed sounded good to go but we still did not figure out the fourth.
Anubrata, Salim and Pratik
Indrajit
The Next Step
Once the three tracks were ready we went to Blooperhouse Studios and promptly recorded them. While this was in the process I just randomly asked the musicians whether we could pay a tribute to Lataji (Mangeshkar) in the fourth and last track while elaborating the same into its original raga. Anubrata suggested the song Duure akash shamiyana which was composed by Hridaynath Mangeshkar and needless to say was a beautiful song. We recorded it live and the track turned out to be more than 12 minutes long, such is the beauty of music when the players are all in sync and it just flows.
Once this was ready I met our co-producer Meghdut Roychowdhury and we decided to make two videos out of the four tracks we had. Once that was decided, I approached Richa Sharma who was on board instantly. I took the reins of directing one of the videos and decided to engage the musicians themselves as actors. Obviously not having done this before, they were a bit jittery but to Richa's credit, she made everyone feel at ease. I did weave a story around the track as I felt that it would make for an interesting visual considering the track is purely instrumental. Megh was thus born.
Mid-Way Blues
After we were ready with everything, began the process of finding the right partner for the release and believe me when I say that I have never faced so much difficulty in getting one as the genre of instrumental music was not appealing enough to most labels or they were offering deals which would not have made justice to the efforts all of us have put in. I was adamant about holding on to this album (by now it was an album-length and no longer an EP) and never release it unless we found THE right label. In the meantime, Tuhin came up with a super video on the track Garaj.
Visual tribute
Garaj is a visual tribute to Calcutta's vibrancy and chaos, blending traditional tabla and sitar with modern electronica. The music video captures the essence of Calcutta through a montage of emotions. The visuals showcase the vibrant streets of Calcutta, bustling with people, rickshaws, and street vendors. The architecture of iconic buildings blends seamlessly with the city's rich cultural heritage. The video also captures the daily life of the people of Calcutta. The rhythmic beats of the tabla and sitar blend perfectly with the city's pulse and vibe, capturing its essence to transport the audience into a trance.
All is well that ends well
Having been a fan of the musical duo Salim-Sulaiman for many years, I stumbled upon their music channel Merchand Records while I was looking at what music channels are currently active on television. Digging deeper into the Internet revealed that it was a dedicated channel for non-film music owned by the duo. I just sent a DM on Salim's Instagram account asking for his email id. To my surprise, the response came instantly and I promptly sent him the entire album with the tracks and the videos.
There was no response from him for a long time, which was obvious as he was touring the world with his shows. I kept a close watch on his posts to keep a track of when he would be returning to India. Once I saw that he was back in town, I sent him another DM politely asking whether he had been able to go through the album or not. His instant response again took me aback. He apologised profusely for completely forgetting about the mail I had sent and promised to listen to the album and the videos right then. It was already midnight. Lo and behold, his next text came at 3am stating that he had loved everything about the album and the videos, he wanted to partner with us and wanted to do this immediately. The rest of it was like clockwork and we launched the album in Mumbai at the Salim-Sulaiman studio! What could have been a better end to this saga I say?
Blooperhouse Studios has entered into a long-term association with Merchant Records where the objective is to give a platform to the talented musicians of Bengal. As they say that synergies have to match in order to create something good.
The Megh Project has been produced by Meghdut Roychowdhury and Ritwik Das, and released in association with Merchant Records and is now available across all streaming platforms. The videos are available on the music channel of Merchant Records, and their YouTube channel.