PROJECTS
Apart from his albums and live performances Shri is well known for his composition work in the world of Theatre, Dance, Film and various collaborative and commissioned projects.
FILM
Shri has recently scored the entire music for a new-age Indian feature film, ‘Barah Anna’ starring great actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Vijay Raaz (of Monsoon Wedding) and Tanishtha Chatterjee (of Brick Lane) directed by Raja Menon. This film is due to release around March 2009. The early previews have already started getting rave comments … watch this space!
COLLABORATIONS
Shri’s collaborations always seem to bring out the best in him and the people involved – of course when it work out or works well! Apart from the most popular one – Badmarsh&Shri – some others are:
WITH JOANNA MAC GREGGOR, ANDY SHEPPARD & THE BRITTEN SINFONIA: This conceptually incredible, strange and unique collaboration was the brainchild of Classical Pianist extraordinaire Joanna McGreggor who had seen Shri in performance and wanted to have that wild and improvisational multi-instrumentalist vibe on a very serious classical piece by Bach namely the Art of Fugue and pieces by famous street composer Moondog. The improvisational aspect also features the Jazz saxophone legend Andy Sheppard and all this is tied and kept together by the Britten Sinfonia. This project toured the length and breadth of the UK playing to sell out halls with some great reviews.
SHRI, BUGGE WESSELTOFT & PER MARTINSEN – RAGATRONIKS: In November 2003 Shri teamed-up with Norwegian Nu-Jazz Impresario, head of the Universal subsidiary Jazzland Records, pianist / keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft, programmer extraordinaire Per Martinsen and highly regarded Indian classical musicians Vivek Rajagopalan and Dhruba Ghosh to perform a jointly composed set at select venues at India’s Jazz Yatra Festival in Bombay and New Delhi and sponsored by the Norwegian Concerts Institute Rikskonsertene. These concerts were hailed by the press as “mind blowing, unique, swinging like crazy, one of its kind, path breaking, original form of entirely new jazz”. Since then Ragatroniks has toured Norway, France and Sweden.
MANODHARMA: Teamed-up with Indian Tabla legend Pandit Sharada Sahai, World Music Percussionist Pete Lockett and Mridangam player Balachander Muthukrishnan for a collaborative exchange leading to a few concerts around London.
REMIXES
- ‘Chura Liya‘ for the Kronos Quartet with Asha Bhosle
- ‘Mission‘ for Le Peuple de L’Herbe featuring JC-001
- ‘Distance‘ for Olli and the Bollywood Orchestra
– ‘Me, Myself and I‘ by De La Soul featured on the Tommy Boy’s Greatest Beats
- ‘Shakalaka Baby‘ from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s ‘Bombay Dreams’
- ‘Maya‘ for Drummer percussionist Trilok Gurtu
- ‘Kirwani‘ by the Indian String arranger “Jolly Mukherjee” for Palm Pictures
- ‘Mother Earth‘ for the artist Ramesh Weeratunga from Berlin which reached top 100 downloads on Itunes
amongst others …
DANCE
A ground breaking dance performance titled ‘Coming of Age’ produced by UK dance school ‘Akademi’ - a celebration of Indian dance in a contemporary British setting. This was designed by the notable designer Keith Khan (now ‘Head Of Culture’ for 2012 Olympics and also known for the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, among other things). The elaborate breathtaking spectacle comprised upwards of 100 dancers, using the entire London Southbank Centre as a stage! A Dance and Bass Duet titled ‘Silence is a rhythm too’ with Dutch contemporary dancer Ellen Van Schuylenburch - for choreographer / dancer Phillipe Van Huffel and Retina Dance called Toxin - and for Jaichandran’s Imlata’ which premiered at the Greenwich Dance Agency ……….. amongst others.
THEATRE
Score for the Lyric Hammersmith, Bristol Old Vic & West Yorkshire Playhouse and David Farr’s Ramayana, British Asian play ‘Strictly Dandia’, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival and then subsequently showed at the Lyric Hammersmith and other theatres amongst others.
