Fusion fantastic

Amarjot Kaur

Ideating from the ‘one world, one nation’ theory, World Music seems to have bridged several boundaries and barriers, pacifying the likes of puritans and those who prefer Western or contemporary music. Drawing myriad influences from African, Indian, and European music, the band Indo-Créole, the members of which are father-son duo, Marco Lacaille and René Lacaille, with Indian musicians Subashish Bhattacharya and Debashish Bhattacharya.

While Marco Lacaille and René Lacaille hail from La Réunion, an insular region of France located in the Indian Ocean, Marco shares that the island has been inhabited since the 17th century, when people from Europe (mostly France), Madagascar and Africa settled there. “The island became an overseas department of France in 1946, but then we have a lot of influences. For instance, the music that we make is a fusion of Indian folk, classical, Maloya (music by the African slaves, particularly heavy on percussion) and Sega (which is a cross between European ballroom music with African rhythm),” shares Marco, who plays bass guitar and electric ukulele.

Meanwhile, Debashish Bhattacharya recollects his chance encounter with René Lacaille in Quebec City Festival. “I just loved the music he played and he loved the sound of my music. That’s how we got together and played at several music festivals and even on the roads,” he says. Debashish, who says that he seems to be suffering from a ‘defect genetic condition’, pulling a fast one on music being his family profession, he does take pride in being the eighth-generation musician from his lineage. “I started playing when I was 4 years old and the first time I performed was at the AIR FM studio on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday celebration in 1967,” he says. Debashish also organises India International Guitar Music festival in Kolkata. Besides, the band has performed at several music festivals, including Jazz Festival in Gronoble, London Jazz Festival, Rhythm of the Earth Festival in South Africa and Sea Coast Jazz Festival. “In fact, one of my albums has been awarded as the best album by Womex.”

Though René Lacaille takes to playing accordion, which contributes to the ‘Sega’ part of their fusion, Debashish plays three kinds of slide guitars, which he designed himself.

Subashish plays the tabla. “The one that I play for a folksy sound is Anandi (which is a cross between Ukulele and Indian slide guitar) and for a classical touch I play a 22-string guitar, which I call Chaturangvi. Also, I play a 14-string guitar that sounds everything between a flamenco guitar, sarangi and rudra veena,” he shares. Playing music since he was seven, Marco shares that his inspiration is Alain Peters, who is a poet, songwriter and musician. However, he has always been playing with his father. “I feel it’s easy and comfortable playing with my father because he learnt music from his father and I have been seeing him play since I was a kid. So, it’s in the family,” says Marco. So, did he ever feel stifled by the generation gap or were there any differences between the two, Marco shares, “I feel music keeps you young, so I didn’t have that problem with my father,” he signs off.

(Indo-Créole will perform at Hotel Mountview on Thursday at 6:30pm)

amarjot@tribunemail.com