William Otis Laswell is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, world music, jazz, dub and ambient styles.
Ustad Zakir Hussain is an Indian tabla virtuoso, composer, percussionist, music producer, film actor and eldest son of tabla player Ustad Allah Rakha.
Ustaad Allarakha Qureshi, popularly known as Alla Rakha, was an Indian tabla player who specialized in Hindustani classical music. He was a frequent accompanist of sitar player Ravi Shankar and was largely responsible for introducing Tabla to the western audience.
Material is an american musical group formed in 1979 and led by bass guitarist Bill Laswell.
Karsh Kale is a British musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, film composer and DJ. He is considered one of the pioneering figures in defining the Asian Underground genre by mixing disparate genres of music such as Indian classical and folk with electronica, rock, pop and ambient music. In addition to production, remixing, and DJ work, Kale is known for his tabla drumming and film composition. Two of his songs, "Distance" and "One Step Beyond" were featured on the Windows Vista sound system.
Ejigayehu Shibabaw, known by her stage name Gigi, is an Ethiopian singer. She has performed the music of Ethiopia in combination with a wide variety of other genres, often in collaboration with her husband Bill Laswell, a bassist and producer.
Tabla Beat Science was a musical group founded in 1999 by Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell. Its style consists of a mixture of Hindustani music, Asian Underground, ambient music, drum and bass and electronica. In 2001 Karsh Kale was approached by super producer Bill Laswell to contribute to a project he was calling “Tabla Beat Science”. The album would feature the leading tabla artists who were taking the instrument into modern and exciting new contexts. Kale joined Laswell, Zakir Hussain, Trilok Gurtu and Talvin Singh to create “Tala Matrix” which is considered to be one of the greatest modern explorations of tabla fusion in recent years. All members would contribute music to the project. The project eventually evolved into a live band featuring Kale on drums and electric tabla, Zakir Hussain on acoustic tabla, Bill Laswell on bass, Ustad Sultan Khan on Sarangi and DJ Disk – turntables. Tabla Beat Science went on to tour the world from their debut at the 16,000 strong Stern Grove concert, which eventually became a 2 disc live release on Palm Pictures. Other stops included Dubai, Beirut, LA, Tokyo, London’s Barbican Center, and finally at the 2nd annual Barsi concert in Mumbai honoring the death anniversary of Hussain’s famous father Ustad Allah Rakha. Tabla Beat Science also had many guest artists joining their electric live concerts including Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Ganesh Iyer, Salim Merchant and the Midival Punditz.
Ustad Sultan Khan was an Indian sarangi player and classical vocalist belonging to Sikar Gharana. He was one of the founding members of the Indian fusion group Tabla Beat Science, with Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honor, in 2010.
Paṅjāb Gharānā(Urdu:پنجاب گھرانا), is a style and technique of Tabla playing that originated in the Punjab region of what is now split in present-day Pakistan and India.
Aashish Khan Debsharma is an Indian classical musician, a player of the sarod. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006 in the 'Best World Music' category for his album "Golden Strings of the Sarode". He is also a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. Besides being a performer, composer, and conductor, he is also an adjunct professor of Indian classical music at the California Institute of the Arts, and the University of California at Santa Cruz, in the United States.
Shujaat Husain Khan is an Indian musician and sitar player of the Imdadkhani gharana. He has recorded over 60 albums and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for his work with the band Ghazal with Iranian musician Kayhan Kalhor. He also sings frequently. His style of sitar playing, known as gayaki ang, aims to imitate the human voice.
MIDIval Punditz is an Indian fusion group consisting of two Delhi-based musicians, Gaurav Raina and Tapan Raj. Their style revolves mostly around bhangra, Oldschool jungle, electronica, and North Indian classical music. Their songs commonly feature traditional Indian instruments, such as the dhol, tumbi, sarod, santoor, dholak, tanpura, tabla, surbahar, swarmandal, sarangi, sitar, and bansuri, but also feature more modern instruments such as the synthesizer and drum machine. They have worked with Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Anoushka Shankar, Kailash Kher, Karsh Kale, Ustad Sultan Khan, Tabla Beat Science, Vishal Vaid, and Angaraag Mahanta.
Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri is an Indian tabla player, and is considered to be one of the all time great masters of the instrument. He has accompanied several musicians of Indian classical music, including, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Pandit Bhimshen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj., Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and many more.
Ustad Ahmed Jan Khan "Thirakwa" was an Indian tabla player, commonly considered the pre-eminent soloist among tabla players of the 20th century, and among the most influential percussionists in the history of Indian Classical Music.
Axiom Collection series of albums are compilations from the Axiom record label released between 1991 and 1996.
Hallucination Engine is a 1994 album by the New York based music group Material. The album mixes jazz, dub, funk and Indian music.
Swara Samrat festival is a four-day annual mega festival of Indian classical music and dance held during the winters in Kolkata, India. This festival is the brainchild of Sarod maestro Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, his vocalist wife, Manasi Majumder and their Sarod player-son Indrayuddh Majumder. The festival is dedicated to Swara Samrat Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Indian Classical Music and Dance Legends such as Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Pandit Jasraj, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Aashish Khan, Dr. Girija Devi, Begum Parveen Sultana, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Guru Karaikudi Mani, Ustad Rashid Khan, Shankar Mahadevan, Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee, Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar, Pandit Venkatesh Kumar, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, Pandit Sanjay Mukherjee, Ustad Shahid Parvez, Ustad Shujaat Khan, Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, Pandit Kushal Das, Pandit Rajendra Gangani, Guru Sujata Mohapatra, Pandit Subhankar Banerjee, Pandit Yogesh Samsi, Pandit Bickram Ghosh, Pandit Tanmoy Bose and Kaushiki Chakraborty are some of the artists who have previously performed in this festival.
"Mantra" is a 1993 song and single by Material from the album Hallucination Engine, composed by Bill Laswell and Lakshminarayana Shankar. "Mantra" received favourable reviews in Spin, The Wire and Stereophile. The album version was remixed by The Orb to a 17-minute track for the single, and also given a 5-minute version.
Radioaxiom: A Dub Transmission is a collaborative album by Bill Laswell and Jah Wobble, released on September 18, 2001 by Axiom and Palm Pictures.
The Vasantotsav is an annual Indian Classical music, semi classical, folk and light music festival held in Pune. The festival is organized by Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande Pratisthan, Pune, in the memory of the late Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande by inviting respected artists to perform at this event. Nana Patekar is the pillar supporting this entire event.
