The fire spreads
to Europe

Antaragni, a young band that fuses Karnatak music with Bob Dylan-style melodies, gets a rave audience in Belgium

Cocaine Dixit. That's what he's called, thanks to Like cocaine, a heady song he sings at all his concerts. So you think this is another of those engineering college bands smashed on dope, synths and drums? Sorry, Raghupathy Dixit doesn't smoke, doesn't drink. And the two other members of his band, H N Bhaskar and Ravichandra Rao, are very talented south Indian classical musicians, hardly the sort you'd associate with the cocaine crowd.

 Antaragni is an unusual band. Raghupathy Dixit, its lead singer and guitarist, comes from Mysore. As a schoolboy he had learnt Bharatanatyam, and some Karnatak music, but by the time he was in college he knew his heart was in guitar playing, and songwriting, which he did during "boring college classes". Raghu was an avid participant at the college cultural festivals. At one such festival he met classical violinist Bhaskar. 

Raghu asked him whether he would like to join him to form a band, which would sing songs in English. Bhaskar was hesitant. He came from a family of traditional musicians, and was making a name as a classical accompanist. What would guru and father Narasimha Murthy say? Eventually, he did agree, and they formed Antaragni, which means inner fire. 

Raghu moved to Bangalore a couple of years ago, and Bhaskar now lives in Chennai, where he continues his violin education under the famous M S Gopalakrishnan. In Bangalore the team found another member, Ravichandra Rao, who plays the khanjira and the flute.

 Antaragni has been performing to wildly enthusiastic campus audiences. Its music is a mix of Karnatak classical graces, country style melody, unconventional rhythms, and very funky violin playing. In fact, Bhaskar is not content with playing Karnatak-style passages; he coaxes very unusual, even outlandish, tones out of his instrument. It sounds Arabian now, folksy the next moment and authentic Karnatak the third!

 "I started writing my own songs because I didn't have a music system at home and so never got to listen to western music... That was good in a way, or else I might have ended up just singing popular numbers!" Raghu muses. 

Raghu's voice is capable of huge volume, and robust expression. When he visited Belgium recently on official work - he works as a scientific writer with a pharmaceutical company - the power of his music came home to him in a startling way. His host heard his CD, grabbed him by the arm and pushed him into a car. "He didn't tell me where we were going. It was an hour's ride to Brussels before he led me to a building which said 'Radio-21' in bold letters", Raghu recalls.

 There they met Miss Tian, programme director of Radio 21, the most popular FM channel in Europe. "Mr Morris, my host, handed our CD to her," says Raghu, "and they started chatting in French". She played the CD. When she was finished, she gave Raghu a warm smile and spoke again to Mr Morris.

 Mr Morris said, "She likes your music. They will play it on their FM channel tonight". Raghu says he was "zapped". He went to colleague Richards' home that night, and sat by the radio. "I have never felt so high in my life," says Raghu. "That night I didn't sleep".

 You'll hear more of Raghu soon. A leading label wants him to sing pop for them, although his heart is in world music, which is a blend of styles.

 Raghu writes in English because he is comfortable in this language, and also because "it suits my kind of music". He's willing to sing in other languages if only someone would write the right kind of words. He sees his genre as "world music" and likes the music of Pandit Ravi Shankar,.Zakir Husain, Trilok Gurtu, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ilaiyaraja and A R Rahman.

 Raghu says Antaragni was formed as an act of protest. "Both Bhaskar and I were going through difficult times when we met… and we found solace in music. Our song Material minds is an example of Antaragni's protest and rebellion against the materialistic world".

 "I've been trying to explore folk music and songs. My song Align me is about a man's inner struggle when he is pushed to a corner, and when everything seems lost," says Raghu.

 Considering Raghu's empathy for people in difficult situations, I gave him a book of Dalit poetry in the hope that he might absorb its anger, humour and sadness, and sing in languages other than English.

 I recently heard a CD (Talking Timbuktu) where guitarist Ry Cooder, who is known in India for having won the Grammy with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, plays with a traditional African musician, Al Farka Toure. Excellent guitar is heard on all tracks, and its beauty is enhanced by native African instruments played both by the West African singer and Cooder. The songs are in four African languages. Raghu will love the album, I am sure.

 Visit Antaragni's web site to see what they have to say about themselves.

 Their site may also be accessed at xoom, which Raghu says loads faster in Europe.

 S R Ramakrishna