THE BODHISATTWA TRIO had a packed schedule for 2020. “We had two national and two international tours in the pipeline, starting March. Everything had to be dropped due to the pandemic, and we were naturally very upset,” frontman Bodhisattwa Ghosh tells us. But on the bright side, this gave the jazz fusion band a chance to make some new music. “So just when the lockdown plans introduced a little bit of relaxation, we began rehearsals (with safety protocols, of course) and we are now working on our fourth album,” the singer adds. The concept album has the working title Frontier and
tackles the topic of space as the final frontier.
The trio consists of Bodhisattwa, along with Shonai Chatterjee on keyboard and synth bass, and drummer Premjit Dutta. The outfit is signed to Croatian label Intek Music. Last year, it released its third album titled The Grey Album, which was a turning point for their sound. It came at a time when their bassist Bijit Bhattacharya left the band and was replaced by Shonai. “The inclusion of Shonai has radically changed the sound and scope of the band. It has completely affected the music, and in a great way. The sound is becoming more and more multi-directional and we are not afraid to take up any musical challenges that come our way,” the artiste says.
Getting experimental
The concept of the upcoming album is about the three musicians leaving Earth in search of intelligent life in space and hopefully finding the purpose of life and existence. “Each song will represent a phenomenon in spacetime that we are experiencing in our quest,” the musician tells us. One of the songs, currently in the works, is called Das Experiment and is about looking at Earth from above and realising that life here is an experiment in the grander scheme of things. The song that the band released last week, and is already a fan favourite, is called Europa Swim. “It is about us exploring the vast subsurface oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa, and discovering a wormhole or gateway that leads us to a parallel universe,” he adds. The song Countergenesis, which will be next in the album, takes this idea further. It is about experiencing the birth of a new parallel universe, as our universe is being destroyed.
Sound check
Musically, the album has several influences and the sound is a hybrid of ambient electronica, avant garde jazz, contemporary jazz, world music, hip-hop, psychedelic rock, and drum and bass. “We have all been listening to artistes such as Mark Guilliana, Brad Mehldau, Niels Klein and Radiohead who are experimenting with cross-over genres. We are actually exploring a lot of European contemporary music in the experimental sphere as well,” Bodhisattwa reveals.
As for the rest of 2020, the band is planning to do many more online gigs that will all feature tunes from the upcoming album. “Hopefully, in 2021, we will be able to execute all our plans which got cancelled this year,” he signs off.
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