Delhi Singer-Songwriter Amartya Ghosh Releases Debut EP

Amartya Ghosh recently released his debut EP ‘Broken Compass’ with a gig at Delhi’s The Piano Man Jazz Club. Photograph: Dhruv Kalra/Captured.

Twenty-three-year-old Amartya Ghosh might have taken a bit to make new friends when he moved to Delhi in 2013 but it wasn’t so bad — he had full-time company of his guitar. And as one would expect, many a song followed, stuff that can safely be labeled indie-folk. “I didn’t start listening to this kind of music until I started making it,” states Ghosh, who finished school in Jamshedpur and chose to study History at Delhi University’s Ramjas College.”It happened because of the circumstances,” he says with a laugh.

While Ghosh’s vocals are reminiscent of indie singer-songwriter Damien Rice’s [flitting effortlessly between breathy crooning and powerful, raspy bursts] he also brews nostalgia with sounds similar to indie rock bands like the Plain White Ts and Death Cab for Cutie thrown in.

Ghosh recently released his debut EP Broken Compass, with a gig at Delhi’s The Piano Man Jazz Club. He says that all the six songs on the record were based on something or someone in his life. While “Letter From Annabelle” is an ode to a beloved [but now broken] guitar which he used while writing a lot of the songs featured on the EP, the lead single “Lone Dancer” was written while he was still a part of rock band Percussive Maintenance.  “I wanted to record and put an EP out there because I had a lot of music which had accumulated,” says Ghosh, who cites greats like Simon and Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke as influences. For the EP, the musician joined forces with Delhi rock band Mindflew’s Ritwik De who provided his skills on strings, keyboard, bass, lead guitar and mixing and mastering.

Featuring introspective ballads and ample intricate guitar, Broken Compass is, according to Ghosh, a ‘mellow’ EP. “It has mostly love songs, but they’re all very different from each other.”

Listen to “Lone Dancer” from Amartya Ghosh’s debut EP Broken Compass below: