Brian Gore collaborates with Varijashree Venugopal, Mohini Dey and Cenk Erdoğan for The Ocean

Popular US musician ‘Guitar Poet’ Brian Gore has set sail on a cross-cultural musical voyage with his latest single, The Ocean, featuring vocalist and flautist Varijashree Venugopal, bass virtuoso Mohini Dey, and fretless guitarist Cenk Erdoğan. The track drifts through currents of folk, world music, fingerstyle guitar, and jazz, with lyrics that chart the voyage of letting go and embracing acceptance. Using the ocean as its compass, the composition flows like a reflective current, with voices and rhythms rising and falling in waves of tension, release, and self-discovery.

Brian Gore releases The Ocean, a fusion of Indian, Turkish and World music influences

In a chat with Indulge, Brian reveals that the ocean has always been central to his personal healing journey. “I slowly learned to face life’s sadness on my own, to release the need for consolation, and to finally start taking care of myself. Time at the ocean—watching the light refract on the waves at sunset, learning to trust floating, feeling the water support me while also confronting the fear of sinking—helped me cross that threshold. This song is about that journey.”

Since The Ocean brings together Indian, Turkish, and world music influences, we ask him how he approached blending such diverse traditions, and he says, “It began with the bond Cenk and I share, our different tunings, and my percussive American fingerstyle blending with his fretless guitar, shaped by Turkish music. Cenk, Vari, and Mo’s jazz backgrounds gave us a shared foundation while letting each of their distinct cultural voices shine through in the piece.”

Brian describes collaborating with Varijashree Venugopal, Cenk Erdoğan, and Mohini Dey as a profoundly transformative experience.“I first met Cenk through International Guitar Night (the world’s premier guitar touring festival that he founded), and I had previously featured Vari in a show I call Worlds of Song. I reached out to Mo, who is a friend of Vari’s. Cenk and I recorded first, then brought in Vari, while Mo preferred to contribute after everyone else had finished their parts. Together, Vari, Cenk, and Mohini transformed the song into a transcendent ocean, far beyond what I had imagined when I first wrote it.”

The music is described as moving in waves of tension and release. So, how did he translate these emotional currents into the composition?" “Mo’s opening lines, with their distinctive harmonics, evoke the image of a lighthouse foghorn. Vari and Cenk add a shimmer that swells before ebbing into her flute part. The song shifts tempo like a gradually strengthening current. By the end, my guitar becomes more percussive, and the intensity crests with Vari and me harmonising together.”

Brian hopes that with the song, listeners find emotional and spiritual resonance, especially those navigating the process of letting go. “Like life, once you enter the ocean, you become part of it. You have no choice but move with its flow. Ocean brine is like our tears—tears we shed as proof that we are human. Life carries us in waves of grief and regret; resistance is futile. As the song says, “If the riptide sets you free, then why do I still grapple for the shore?” You can’t escape by fighting the tide, but if you move with the current, it can carry you to where you need to be.”

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