SoundCloud has introduced us to quite a few artists that we currently cannot do without. If you haven’t already, then it’s time to add Rajan Shrestha, bass guitarist of the post-rock act Jindabaad, to the list. Shrestha’s debut album Cinema, out on Bangalore based record label Consolidate, is worth a listen and many more.
Shrestha reminisces about the time when he was in school and he first made music and recorded an album. “I was in grade nine when I recorded for the first time,” says the musician who confesses that his interest in electronic music is a recent thing. But it is this interest that led to the production of Cinema, his first solo electronic project.
“It all started a year back when I was selected as one of the residential artists at Photo Kathmandu. There I met the Pakistani electronic musician Alien Panda Jury,” says Shrestha adding that this chance meet resulted in a collaborative project, Annasir. This was when his love for electronic music all started.
However, Shrestha is aware that the concept of electronic music is new in the Nepali music industry. “It’s not a mainstream music genre so it doesn’t really capture people’s attention all that much,” says Shrestha. But he is also quick to add that this form of music has a lot of different things to offer and it is unique, and that you should definitely add it to your playlist.
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Besides being involved in the music industry, Shrestha loves photography and videography as well. An ethnomusicology graduate from Kathmandu University, Shrestha likes to be involved in the many aspects of digital media. But music, he says, is his first love.
Some songs to look forward to in his EP Cinema are named after evergreen Nepali classical songs – Chino, Mayalu, and Kusume Rumal. The music is influenced by Shrestha’s nostalgia, and his current experiments with song construction and the two are tied together beautifully by modern sensibilities and techniques.
Shrestha talks about how this project happened entirely by chance. He had tuned into TV filmy, a local channel that broadcasts Nepali music. This led him to think about Gitaanjali, a national TV program of the 90s that played popular Nepali film songs. “I got all nostalgic and Cinema was born from that nostalgia,” he says.
You can listen to his new tracks on SoundCloud though the official launch is tomorrow at RS MOTO in Kathmandu. So get ready for some new, really good music and play Cinema on high volume.
(The Week Bureau)
