The twain shall meet at this gig

Where French musician Titi Robin will jam with classical Indian musicians to celebrate the launch of an album called Laal Aasman

The twain shall meet at this gig

Where French musician Titi Robin will jam with classical Indian musicians to celebrate the launch of an album called Laal Aasman

French musician,Thierry aka Titi Robin will jam up live with Indian musicians and also launch an album called Laal Aasman in town this Friday. This isn't all; music lovers in town are in for a little surprise as the evening will feature tracks from this album composed by Titiu00a0 in a way that enables classical Indian musicians connect to it. The line-up for the evening includes Titi Robin on the guitar, oud (a pear shaped, stringed instrument) and bouzouki (a pear shaped instrument from the lute family), Murad Ali on sarangi, Vinay Mishra on harmoniun and Vinayak Netke on tabla.

"India has been a big influence in my music, even though I don't play Indian music," says Robin right at the beginning of a telephonic interview. And this doesn't come as much of a surprise as Robin is no stranger to the country. His own music comes from the Mediterranean region as collective influences from the musical styles of the countries there. "My music has elements all the way from Italy to South France. It even has a tinge of flamenco and some connection from the gypsy culture in India," says Robin emphasising that his music is not really fusion but a memory of all the collective influences around him.

Robin has previously been involved in musical projects across the globe including one in India in 1992. This was a project with an artist called Gulabi Sapera and brought to the light his fascination with the snake charmers' music. Besides other projects in Morocco and Istanbul, Robin also collaborated with qawwals from Lahore three years ago.

The current project that includes the to-be-launched album Laal Aasman is a series of compositions by the artist himself and draws strong parallels in Hindustani classical music, involving him in a collaboration with 11 Indian artists. The name he tells us has been inspired by a poem from the same album. "The title is a metaphor of my music. It signifies the end of the day," says Robin.

The show in town will feature some of the tracks recorded last year for this project and will see Indian musicians play them with him onstage. "The compositions are mine and will be constantly improvised.
The other artists get to improvise on the same in Hindustani style," says Robin. "It is like a constant dialogue between us in music", he adds.

Robin's strong Indian connections do not end here. This self confessed fan of Kishori Amonkar enjoys listening to ghazals, watching Indian movies from the 60s and is an ardent fan of Parveen Sultana and Bismillah Khan. He dreams of collaborating with music director Vishal Bharadwaj someday and believes this only the beginning of his tryst with India. "I love what he has done to Shakespearean theatre. All his films are very intelligent and very original," he says.