Entertainment
The U.K.-based sarod artist recently wrapped up a multi-city tour and is building performances around climate change, artisans and an ode to his Bengali roots
London-based, Mumbai-born artist Soumik Datta. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
London-based sarod artist and composer Soumik Datta is spending about seven months in India this year, more than he ever has before.
Part of a tour called Melodies in Slow Motion, it’s a conscious shift towards performing more in the country, including his recent Travellers set, which just wrapped up with six shows, including the Ziro Festival in September. This time, Datta, who was born in Mumbai, says it feels more like coming home. “When you live in a city like London, you forget that the multicultural-ness of it is amazing, but somewhere underneath all the layers, you’re very aware of not being white.” As soon as he steps off the plane in India, “that suddenly disappears.” He adds, “There’s a sense of ease and freedom.”
These statements could well be motivated by all the anti-immigrant, anti-multicultural rhetoric that’s very much present in countries in the West. It very much emerges in Datta’s concerts with the Travellers, the band he put together after a residency at Mumbai’s G5A earlier this year. Through voice samples that invoke ‘Not My President’ protests against U.S. President Donald Trump to the people of Gaza, to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s A Tryst With Destiny speech about Indian freedom, and scientist Robert Oppenheimer reflecting on his work on the atom bomb, there’s a clear statement in the self-described “ear cinema” of the show.
With Carnatic violinist Sayee Rakshith, tabla artist Debjit Paitundi, and percussionist and mridangam artist Sumesh Narayanan, the band weaves between Carnatic and Western phrases, the combination of rhythms from tabla, cajon and darbuka making it even more global-sounding. In the set, Datta also engages with the bhajan “Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram,” a melody “that stood for empathy and secularism,” which his mother took with her when she moved out of India in 1995.
The Travellers—as well as other projects he’s working on, including one with textile craftspeople in Ahmedabad and the Bengal-inspired Mone Rekho—is a result of an “old-school documentary style” creative approach for Datta. “I wasn’t really working like this before in India. A lot of my work is in the West, and when I come here, it’s more about like watching other people’s shows, going to see what is being presented in India,” he says.
Around three years ago, Datta was sparked into making the Travellers set, upon being asked “what are you interested in?” by a friend. “I think I said I was interested in storytelling, and in playing my instrument in a context that I felt was true. They were like, ‘Okay, so can you do those things through audio?’ It’s took me a long time for that to land,” he adds.
As he built a bank of sound clips and music that he was inspired by, Datta began to understand the powerful and transportive nature of audio. In June at G5A in Mumbai, he got to expand on the audio design, presenting two shows and conducting workshops.
It led to questions about the privilege that musicians have of “being included” and the common thread of musicians all having instruments they travel with, regardless of whether they’re in an orchestra or in an indie band. From grouses about traveling with instruments, Datta and his group got to talking about immigration. “We started talking about, ‘Why are you here?’ In some ways, it’s because your instrument is your passport to see the world,” he says. It formed the core idea of the Travellers set.
There are times when the sonic metaphors take over, like in a piece where Rakshith and Narayanan are playing raga Surutti and Datta is playing raga Gorakh Kalyan. “There are lots of lovely similarities, but there are tensions and differences as well. I guess Sayee [Rakshith] is the migrant in that way, because I continue to stay in Gorakh Kalyan, and he starts in Surutti and shifts over very slowly to another raga called Andolika, which is closer to Gorakh Kalyan. Towards the end, he’s pretty much with me. So there is this sense of musical assimilation to reflect how a migrant might, over years, have to shift and change their personality,” Datta explains.
There’s another Travellers show at London Jazz Festival on Nov. 23 and then Datta heads to Singapore for a show with Paitundi for Mone Rekho on Nov. 28 in Singapore. More shows with the Travellers are in the works as well, in concert halls but also “very unusual spaces.” Datta notes, [Spaces] where you can blur the line more between performer and audience.”
In tandem, Datta is working on more subject matter that can intertwine with music to push audiences into thought and hopefully, action too. He’s working with juvenile detention centers for music workshops and performances, and a multi-city workshop about the impact of air pollution explored through field recordings and music. It will spawn an album as well but also a new live production in April 2026 that should take shape by the time this current tour ends. He says, “It’s really a climate piece, and it’s about interconnection. Everything needs air to be able to function and live. The production will then go on after that to tour in schools and become a sort of tool for teachers and parents to discuss interconnection and the environment with children.”