World Music Day 2026: Musician and Composer Prajna Dutta discusses his latest album, which spotlights the Baritone Ukulele

My core mission was to dive headfirst into the true expressive potential of the baritone ukulele. It’s an instrument with an incredibly rich, warm voice, but it’s often boxed into a narrow identity. I wanted to show just how vast, versatile, and powerful it can really be.

Prelude to Prose is my take on the structure, discipline, and elegance of Western Classical music. Ole explores the fiery passion of Flamenco. Folklore focuses on simplicity, resonance, and the universal language of traditional music. Bossaball is a groove-driven dive into Bossa and Latin rhythms. Devi is a spiritual connection to my roots in Indian Classical music. En Garde explores Gypsy Jazz. Devil’s Own Blues revisits the soul of Blues and Roots.

It stemmed from my desire to synthesise everything that has ever influenced me. Over the years, my songwriting and compositions have been shaped by an incredibly diverse palette of genres—from the mathematical beauty of Western Classical and the rhythmic complexity of Indian Classical to the raw grit of the Blues and the syncopation of Latin music. I needed an instrument that could serve as a blank canvas for all of these voices without carrying too much historical baggage of its own. The baritone ukulele became that perfect bridge.

When you are playing solo, you don’t have a bass player to anchor the groove or a piano to fill out the lush middle harmony— you have to evoke all of that simultaneously on just four strings. To break through that limitation, I had to stop treating the instrument traditionally and resort to alternative tunings. It forced me to map out entirely new fretboard layouts on the fly, but it gave the album exactly what it needed: a fuller, more orchestral sound that makes you forget you are listening to just four strings.

While the instrument choice was unconventional , I completely stuck to my traditional, time-tested creative process. My process always follows a very specific progression: The Core Compositional Blueprint! I focus on crafting a distinct, evocative melody that can stick in your head and carry the emotional weight of the piece. Once the melody is locked in, I build the harmonic framework around it. Finally, I anchor the piece with interesting rhythm and bass structures. The real magic—and the fun challenge—of Intersection Seven was forcing that traditional, layered architecture onto just four strings.

We haven’t shot standard performance videos. Instead, we’ve created a series of narrative music videos that are intertwined. Each video acts as a specific chapter, visually interpreting the mood and texture of the track it represents while pushing the overarching story forward. We are going to be rolling these out separately, and as they drop, the puzzle pieces will start falling into place. I’m incredibly excited for everyone to not just hear the album but to see how this universe unfolds.

Not at all! In fact, I completely disagree with the notion that a music video is a strict ‘must-have’ or a mere marketing checklist item for releasing music today. Ultimately, the audio should always be entirely selfcontained and powerful on its own. A video shouldn’t act as a crutch to explain the song; it should act as a separate art piece that interacts with the music, offering a fresh, layered dimension that expands the overall universe of the project.

Yes, but every single day is music day. For me, music is my first language. Long before I learned to articulate complex thoughts, emotions, or philosophies through words, I was processing the world around me through melody, rhythm, and sound. Words can often be restrictive; they have boundaries, geographical borders, and cultural limitations. Music has none of that. It allows me to speak directly from the gut to anyone, anywhere. It’s a continuous, lifelong conversation that never stops.

I am currently preparing for a solo mixedmedia art performance, my next album, an upcoming original album for Biplab Goswami, on the direction team for Subhrajit Mitra’s Mayamrigaya and composing a highly diverse musical palette for what is being envisioned as Bengal’s very first authentic dance film.

Intersection Seven is streaming on all audio platforms.

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