Tunes from the dunes

From the Sahara, to the Thar, folk musicians from deserts all over the world will be showcasing traditional as well as fusion music at the second edition of the Amarrass Desert Music Festival starting today in the Capital.

While musicians from the Thar region are celebrating about a four-hundred-year-old tradition of Sufi and folk music, artistes from the Sahara will be showcasing the resonance of the African desert, with some hints of jazz, blues and rock.

"The idea is to bring in two different yet similar cultures together. No one in India has ever brought Rajasthani and Malian musicians together on the same platform.," says Ashutosh Sharma, founding member, Amarrass Records.

The festival, featuring 50 artistes, 12 bands, four continents, 14 hours of music over two days, has an array of renowned international artistes which include Bombino who is performing for the first time in India, BaBa ZuLa, Padma Shri Sakar Khan, and the Barmer Boys, among others.

Other acts like Dischordian, Tritha Electric, The Blue Infinity, Alan Rego, and a special Indo-Welsh collaboration, I Adra, with Tauseef Akhtar (ghazal singer) and Gwyneth Glyn (singer/songwriter), Georgia Ruth Williams will be performing as well. The festival has also arranged an 'instrument-petting zoo' where amateurs and curious folk can try their hand at playing several instruments like the Morchhang (jaw harp), the khartaal and many others.