Duo Anusha Mani and Sangeet Haldipur recently announced the release of their much-awaited maiden album Carmonies and the album serves as an ode to the thumri tradition. The six-track album traverses across various genres such as underground electronica, jazz, funk, R&B, qawwali, sufi and world music; and serves as a sonic bridge between old-style classical and contemporary new-age sounds. We catch up with the musical duo, to find out everything you need to know about this album that is garnering all the right kind of attention and how!
What does Carmonies mean?
Anusha Mani: The title Carmonies was coined way before the album was born. Carmonies came from car and harmonies inspired from the fact that we often sat in our car, harmonised cover songs and recorded ourselves.
Yet, the album is an ode to thumris?
Sangeet Haldipur: So, initially Anusha was supposed to collaborate with a music producer on this popular thumri called Nadiya. For some reason that collaboration didn’t materialise and Anusha’s vocal scratches were on my hard disk. And on one random evening I decided to produce it just for fun. But it turned out so beautiful that Anusha was really thrilled to work on this further.
What have you done differently with thumris in this album?
Anusha : Firstly choosing thumris as a genre was really challenging for us. Thumris are sung freely and aren’t bound by specific timings. Some of them even go beyond 10-12 minutes or even longer, quite easily. So, for us to concise them into four-minute songs required us to think out of the box. Since the lyrics and compositions were traditional , we decided to add our own additional lyrics and music and thus give the tunes an extension of sort through harmonies and catchy vocal hooks.
But why the thumri?
Sangeet : The thumri as an art form has been nurtured and presented over the years by many legendary artistes. And while this art form has ardent listeners and followers, it’s still a smaller percentage. Our aim was to celebrate these creators and artistes for giving their heart and life in preserving and presenting this art form. We also wanted to cater to the younger and digitally-inclined generation who might not have even heard of a thumri, let alone know what it means.
How did the idea behind each song originate?
Anusha : Considering it took us eighteen months to create this album, each song definitely has a story of its own. Yaad Piya Ki has that longing meets angst combination that we were looking for. Aeri Sakhi has a very tribal folk vibe to it because of the lush harmonised hook line. Naina More is extremely quirky where qawwali meets eclectic drum and bass. Ka Karoon has the big band brass underlays and yet a ear worm kind of melodic hook to it. And as far as we know , we don’t think there’s a version of any thumri where someone has used shuffle (a rhythm style) in its rhythmic swing or presentation. And lastly, Ras Ke Bhare is the most unique track on the album. The underground heavy sub bass and catchy vocal hooks really make this song stand out for us.
Out of the six songs, which was the most difficult one to work on and why?
Sangeet : Yaad Piya Ki took all the energy out of us. There were three different versions of it and by the end of it we had almost given up on the idea of taking it any further. Somewhere along the way we realised we have to make this album with an honest and vulnerable approach and let our guards down and really believe in ourselves and so we finally went with what we had.
Finally, what can we expect next?
Anusha: I’ve got a single lined up next , which is in its final stage. This one is special since it’s composed by me and co-written by us. Sangeet and his brother Siddharth also have the much awaited Aspirants Season 2 coming up which has a duet sung by Mohan Kannan and I. We’re also working on turning Carmonies into a live onstage act. So, you’ll get to see us perform the album live very soon.
Streaming now on all major audio platforms.