Somali Vidyarthi Tagore Sangeet Class

Somali Performs globally with a mission to find a dialect  through music to communicate worldwide, to search for harmony and coherence.

Genres: Indian Classical, World Music, Trance Music, Chant Music, Vedic Music, Tagore Music, Migrating Music, Psychedelic Music.

INDUS BAND

Somali is the founder of Indus band - a two member Neo-Classical band. Her own tenor voice and a bass guitarist MF Hossain from Bangladesh creates a stormy impact in the world of classical music. She has been a Sangeet Visharad from Lucknow Vatkhande Sangeet Vidyapith. Mystical genres of music from around the world and the musical notes from classical Ragas from Indian subcontinent on that canvas has been her sphere of work; her music is enriched with classical forms with strong trance and psychedelic overtones. 

SOMALI is tracing back, based on her own research work since 2005, the path of human migration since the dawn of civilization to understand the migration of music with them, and is searching for the numerous cultures involved in the course, and is celebrating the soul reflected in one another. The story of migration with its pain and pangs, the legacy of culture that is yet thriving in music of the different places involved, the saga of the ancient civilisations involved which could have a dialogue between them, all these are merging in SOMALI's music to evolve a nascent genre that is being termed as Migrating Music.

Diaspora, the word is used more broadly to refer to the cultural connections maintained by a group of people who have been dispersed, or who have migrated for that matter, around the globe. Each distinct group or community is different timescales. A key characteristic of Diasporas is that a strong sense of connection to a homeland which is maintained through cultural practices and ways of life. This ‘homeland’ may be imaginary rather than real. Its existence even need not be tied to any desire to ‘return’, and its magnificent outcome is Migrating Music. It may be the Roma Music of the Romani people, Fado of the Portuguese, Flamenco from Spain, Turkish Music of Persia, Jazz or Blues and so on. Wherever there is migration, partition, yearning for the loved ones, there are the forms of soulful music.

SOMALI's vision: Migrating Music 

Here, a very important observation may be cited. This is the land that has been the cradle of Mysticism, the Silk Route. We know that almost all the structured religions have their mystical offshoots. The world of mysticism- the Kabbalah in Judaism, or Gnosticism with Christianity, or Sufism in Islam, or, else, Vedanta with Hinduism, or so on- is so varied, and yet emanating perhaps the same spirit- yearning to be reunited with the Ultimate Reality  through the path of love and devotion. The relationship between Mysticism and Migrating Music may seem to be somewhat eerie though, yet the basic note has been similar. All the mystical forms of religion and musical forms associated with them, viz., Qwaali, Kirtan, Baul, etc., search for someone who is the Ultimate Being. And the search for one’s root and identity is the soul of Migrating Music, which is the quintessence of the Upanishads. Philosophically these two are close companions, reflecting each other, searching for the greater Truth.

Now in this world of apparent lovelessness and cruelty in social scenarios, somehow these two forms, i.e., Mystical Music and Migrating Music, are gradually and immensely becoming popular. Be it Sufi Songs or Flamenco or Jazz, our Vedic chanting or psychedelic music or the notes of Bengal, numerous folk forms from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, and some parts of Nepal, however high-sounding the philosophy is the future generation is finding solace in these forms of soulful music. For, our sweetest songs are those that spell out our saddest thoughts. Cry has been the basic note. And pining for the Ultimate Being, or for our root, finally transcends us to a sense of positivity, beauty. If the world can cry together, can go through a sense of catharsis, and finally can feel the togetherness this way, and can reach out to a better world.