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From The Times of India, February 15th 2005
MUSICAL MOMENTS
Lekha Menon
A music album sans producers, musicians, contracts and a studio? That's what
young Abhay Adhikari has created through his on-line album
What do you need to record a music album? A studio, a singer, lyricist, music
composer, arrangers, an item number for a video and loads of money, right? Wrong.
Meet Abhay Adhikari and all these conventional notions of creating music goes for
a toss. For this 23-year-old Delhiite has shown that the only element needed to make
music is a great idea, a computer and a passion for sound.
Think it's inconceivable? But that's precisely what this youngster has achieved
through The2Project.com -- a CD single he conceived and produced on-line, along
with well-known vocalist Shubha Mudgal and Dutch composer Coos De Graaf (Hygge).
"I believe that the process of making music should be collaborative and interactive,"
says Adhikari, who was in Ahmedabad recently for a seminar on Free Culture.
Adhikari typifies the Gennext attitude of taking the less-travelled path -- even if
it means turning a few conventional, pre-set ideas upside down. A Bsc in chemistry,
Adhikari was always interested in technology, "often fiddling with flash and creating
animation," as he puts it. His love for Irish music led him to do his Masters in
multi-media from Ireland.
He then returned to set up his multi-media studio in Delhi. But the urge to do
something different was always there. And an online album seemed to fit in perfectly.
"The thought struck me one day when Shubhaji, for whom I was making a presentation,
happened to be in my studio and started humming a song I was playing from Hygge's EP.
The spontaneous response was quite exciting and we decided to do some experimentation.
I knew Hygge quite well and soon we were on."
Mudgal first recorded vocals for the original instrumental version of Hygge. These
raw vocals were sent by Adhikari via 'messenger' to Hygge who then arranged and mixed
it. "In the entire process, Hygge, the composer and Shubhaji, the singer never met!
Nor did we step into a studio except to record her vocals. So the entire track was
shaped virtually and we discussed it over endless online chats," laughs Adhikari.
Three months of online chatting, mixing and intense discussions later, the fusion
album finally took shape. Sans musicians, arrangers, dubbing, redubbing, fussy
studio bosses and production pressures.
Adhikari, for obvious reasons, doesn't want to reveal exactly how much it cost to
produce the album. "It was a shoe-string budget," is all he says, but adds that the
entire process has been "creatively satisfying," and he would explore further. As he
concludes: "Take a look at artistes from Pakistan. They are amazing. Through an
on-line process, we can create beautiful music that can transcend boundaries."
A music album sans producers, musicians, contracts and a studio? That's
what young Abhay Adhikari has created through his on-line album
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