‘Indian Ocean’- those who have heard them they would remember the the unique sound of guitar played by Sushmit.The musical style of the band can be at best classified as fusion music. Some music critics describe the band's music as "Indo-rock fusion with jazz-spiced rhythms that integrates shlokas, sufism, environmentalism, mythology and revolution".
Indian Ocean are an Indian rock band formed in New Delhi in 1990. They are considered to be the pioneers of fusion rock genre in India. Susmit Sen, Asheem Chakravarty, Rahul Ram and Amit Kilam formed the most stable and successful line-up in the band's timeline.
Biography:
In 1984 Asheem and Sushmit met and they kept on experimenting with their music with Susmit on guitar and Asheem on tabla and drums.Their first notable performance was at Roorkee University.
In 1990, they were struggling hard to come up with a demo recording of their band. Susmit sold his electric guitar to raise money for the purpose. They chose to call themselves 'Indian Ocean' which came as a suggestion from Susmit’s father. They had also drafted Shaleen Sharma as the drummer, and Indrajit Dutta and Anirban Roy as bassists.
They recorded the demo, taping an incredible 45 minutes consisting of 7 songs in just one day. Despite the rushed recording, the quality of the demo tape impressed HMV enough to offer them an album deal.
In 1991, Rahul Ram who was Susmit's schoolmate at St. Xaviers, Delhi, joined the band replacing Anirban on bass.Their debut album came out in 1993, it sold over 40,000 copies within a year of its release. It became the highest selling record by any Indian band at that time.
In 1994, drummer Shaleen left the band. He was replaced by Amit Kilam who was much younger than the other band members.
In December 2009 the band lost Asheem to death. In October, after suffering a heart attack he was hospitalized in Doha where he was in coma for a brief period and recovering well.On December 25, 2009 he died in New Delhi due to a cardiac arrest.
Indian Ocean has so far not announced any permanent replacement for Asheem. However, they have brought Himanshu Joshi to fill in for Asheem's vocals and Tuheen Chakravarty for tabla and other percussion which Asheem used to play.
Every member of this band is/was unique in their own way:
Asheem Chakravarty:
Indian Ocean fans call him “the man with the golden voice”. Asheem sang and played the tabla simultaneously, a difficult feat rare by Indian percussionists. Asheem’s rhythm structures were unique and contributed a large part to Indian Ocean’s signature sound.
Rahul Ram:
His stage presence is an essential part of Indian Ocean’s live concerts. His vocals have a power and edge that emphasizes the folk roots of the band. Rahul also does most of the talking at live shows.
Sushmit Sen:
Susmit has virtually invented a new style of playing the guitar, his guitar sound forms the basis of Indian Ocean’s unique sound.
Amit Kilam:
Amit’s drumming is a happy balance between the conventional and non-conventional. He believes in layering rhythm rather than heavy drums, and prefers simplicity over technical wizardry. He incorporates Indian rhythms into his drumming in a unique fashion, moving in cycles of 8, 10, 12 14, 16, rather than simple 4/4 or ¾ styles. He goes easy on the skins, yet his playing is very dynamic.
One of the most famous song by the band is 'Kandisa' (Kandisa is an ancient prayer in Aramaic)
