It shall indeed be a mystical experience at least for some Delhiites tonight, as they will be treated to some exotic music from the Orient and East Europe, at the performance by oriental fusion band Mystique. The concert shall feature Iranian, Jewish, Spanish and Egyptian music to name a few. And guess what, the show is open to all!!
Formed in 2001 and based out of Delhi, Mystique is made up of four core members, namely Swiss Lionel Dentan on the Arabic rebab and Indian saaz and sitar; Russians Gennady Lavrentyev on guitar and violin and Andrey Demindenko on santoor and Persian tombek, ney and def; and the Indian Suchet Malhotra who handles def, darbouka, djembe, tabla, cajon, udu, pandero et al. Outside of the core there are also many guest artists who play with them at concerts, comprising of flautist Rajesh Prasanna, mandolin player Siraj Ali, sarangi player Kashif Ahmed, Frenchman Sandro Mariotti on sax, Belgian Pieter Lenaerts on contrabass and Slovenian Matija Solce on accordion. Count the number of countries involved in the above two lines and you will understand the kind of fusion that is being talked about here!! The various musical traditions from which the different musicians come from makes Mystique a true Oriental-Indian-Jazz ensemble. Mystique released their first album, which was titled Melodies of the Orient, in the year 2004. Their second CD is expected later this year. The core members of Mystique also form the part of another band named Da Saz, who incidentally brought out Mystique’s debut album.
Last week the band had performed at Delhi to a packed audience. The concert had featured the core members, Rajesh Prasanna and also special guest singer Anna Hoffman. The band has previously performed at venues such as Jaipur Virasat festival, Udaipur Lake Palace etc apart from a lot of venues outside India. So in case you missed out on the previous concert and want to attend a Mystique show, today is the chance!! In case you need some help making up your mind on the band in spite of all that is written above, you can check out their myspace page. The show is at 8.30 pm, so if I were you, I would make a beeline for Chilli Seasonss right away!! AND if you miss today’s show as well, there are a couple of Latin jazz performances that Suchet Malhotra will be giving in Delhi as part of the Wanny Angerer Quartet, later this month.
PS: Appreciate it if people attending the concert could mail us feedback on the concert, how it went, the songs performed et al, either by commenting to this or thro’ the form available in the Contact Us tab.
