Maybe time had halted, says violin player Ganesh Rajagopalan as he approached the Grammy stage with his Shakti musicians to get the brilliant gramophone for 'Best Worldwide Music Collection'.
Shakti won the Grammy for "This Second", the band's most memorable studio collection in more than 45 years.
Rajagopalan, Shakti's pioneer and guitarist John McLaughlin, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, and percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram won the honor at a function in the US recently.
"It was like rapture since time halted (for us). We had a group of 25 individuals with us so the festival began around then. It resembled a delightful second remarkable, scratched in memory," Rajagopalan told PTI in a meeting.
The violin player, 59, who alongside his sibling Kumaresh, is a noticeable name in the Carnatic music club, has gotten comfortable in Seattle (US) however has a home in Chennai as well.
He credits McLaughlin and Hussain for being the main impetus behind the studio collection that was made during the pandemic with individuals sitting in "various corners of the world".
"We made a drop box so every creation, everything was placed on that drop box. After the synthesis was run, we played endlessly layers, so everything was blended. It was wonderful to the point that the situation met up on the grounds that before all else, there was just a single line and from that point onward, everything was added consistently…
"When you hear the music, it's so gorgeous. Everything seems like we were in one studio, seating and playing against one another. It seems like that now yet it was really played in various parts, from various pieces of the globe. In this way, that is the force of 'Shakti' I think," he said.
Rajagopalan turned into an individual from 'Shakti' in 2019, stepping in as a musician after Lakshminarayana L Shankar left the gathering, which was initially established in 1976.
The performer expressed Shakti as a band that is extremely unique for every part.
"At the point when we get together, the vibration, the energy that Shakti acquires, you will be sucked into that sort of feeling. We long for that and when there is a hole, we long for that vibe. To hobnob with such incredible individuals is additionally one of the motivators of playing with 'Shakti'."
Rajagopalan said the band, whose founding individuals were McLaughlin, Hussain, Lakshminarayan Shankar, and Vikku Vinayakram, "characterized the combination".
"It's an extremely one of a kind, extraordinary band. That is the way things were shaped and after that for around a decade or so and afterward they disbanded and afterward after that it came in another symbol and afterward it got disbanded once more, and afterward another occurred.
"50 years have passed and 'Shakti' has additionally developed with time and music is not the same as what it started and what it is now. It's so unique, so lovely and it's developed with the times, change in individuals, and presently it's come round trip."
Rajagopalan has teamed up with performers like A R Rahman, Ilayaraja, and M Keeravani previously and is additionally the pioneer behind the Eswara School of Music in Portland (US).
A craftsman, he said he is generally open to groundbreaking thoughts in music.
"Music is more similar to a compulsion as it were… All along, I have been lucky to play with the top, the vast majority on the planet… The stop comes just when you feel that you have done everything except I think there is something else to come," he said.
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