irish melodies and indian raagas

There are 6 of us contributing to the Band. Ethan Minot, Uday Varadarajan, Nikhil Krishnan, Sudarshan Siddhaye, Sandeep Sood and Nalini Gwynne.

Ethan plays the tin whistle, classical recorder, Irish Flute, Western Classical Flute and Bansuri (Indian Bamboo Flute).
Note:  Ethan's actually playing a Veena in the photo...
 

Uday's on classical guitar. Nikhil's on crutches.

Nikhil's on acoustic guitar (steel string).

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Sudarshan and Sandeep both play the Tabla (Indian Drums)

 

Nalini, our vocalist

 
 
 

a short story
The band came together in 1997 in Berkeley, California. The usual story... Ethan was walking down the 4th floor corridor of International House when he heard Uday playing his guitar. The door was ajar. So Ethan invited himself in and introduced himself. A jam was underway and soon Nikhil and Sandeep, both friends of Uday, joined the music. A new fusion of cultures had begun.

Lark in the morning was the first song we played together. Before moving to Berkeley Ethan was a member of an Irish ceileigh band in New Zealand. Lark in the Morning was one of the old band's favourites. Uday, Nikhil and Sandeep were excited to learn what Ethan knew of traditional Celtic tunes. Ethan was equally fascinated by Indian music. The original 4 members of conFusion soon sketched out a piece bringing their Indian and Celtic interests together. The Butterfly and Raag Bhairav  was performed at International House Sunday Supper, our first chance to share this new sound with a good sized audience. With Christy Lee's fantastic encouragement we ended up playing three of the year's four Sunday Suppers and performed at a yearly fund raising dinner.

We finished that school year with our own concert, to commemorate what we thought would be "the end of conFusion". Serendpitywas recorded in May. Ethan headed home to New Zealand and Sandeep graduated and started job hunting. Over the next year Nikhil, Uday and Sandeep performed infrequently in and around International House, but mainly concentrated on Ph.D work and, in Sandeep's case, a new job.

Things were relatively quiet until Nalini, a good friend of the band, joined the group during the summer of 1999. Nalini, who grew up in Wales, has a heritage that is completely representitive of conFusion's music. With Nalini's beautiful vocals, a new dimension was added to the band's music. The band performed songs structured on Welsh and Indian tunes, drawing on Nalini's Welsh roots. The lyrics to  Huntingtone Castle  were written at this point. Towards the end of summer, conFusion performed at the San Francisco Pride Parade.

Ethan ostensibly returned to get his Ph.D. at Berkeley during Fall 1999 and Sudarshan joined the band shortly thereafter. conFusion was complete! With Nikhil and Sudarshan, who grew up learning music in India, and Uday, Sandeep and Nalini, who have Indian music backgrounds, the band was  solidly grounded in the spirit and structure of two traditions. We celebrated the reunion by playing at International House Sunday Supper (again)! In September  99 we began recording a full length album, ' butterflies', at Muscletone studios in Berkeley. Work on the album continued through March 2000. The band had a great time working with Derek at Muscletone studios. To get a feel for the fantastic atmosphere at the studio we recommend Derek's 'ramblings' as fun reading.
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