Premiere: Dhruv Ghanekar’s ‘Suprabhatam’ Brings Shapeshifting Fusion

Composer and guitarist Dhruv Ghanekar offers the first glimpse of his upcoming fusion album Voyage 2 with “Suprabhatam” featuring vocalist Nandini Srikar, bassist Mohini Dey and guitarist Abhay Nayampally. “‘Suprabhatam’ is sacred on so many levels and this is an entirely surprising and new way at looking at it that I think will shock the listener,” Ghanekar says.

With Voyage 2 – releasing on Ghanekar’s Wah Wah Records on Jun. 27 – serving a sequel to his 2015 album Voyage, the artist tells Rolling Stone India that the 10-track album has been in the works for a few years now. It started with recording melodies with vocalists Kalpana Patowary and veteran voice Ila Arun. “By a happy coincidence, most of my principal artists on this project are women, which was not premeditated but seems rather preordained. I have always been drawn to powerful voices with a lot of character, and every voice on Voyage 2 is an authority in the culture she represents,” he says.

Everything from konnakol to drum and bass, Carnatic guitar and jazz-fusion take center stage on Voyage 2, which kicks off with the dexterous and euphoric “Suprabhatam.” An evergreen Sanskrit prayer that has, in the past, been given life by the likes of the late legendary vocalist M.S. Subbulakshmi, Srikar adds provides a powerful foundation for Ghanekar and his collaborators like Dey and Nayampally to paint over. Ghanekar adds, “I had worked on ‘Suprabhatam’ in 2019 with Nandini but was reluctant about releasing it as I feared some backlash to the treatment and abandoned it for a long time. But eventually summoned the courage to finish it after I played it to [konnakol artist] Somashekhar (Jois) and Abhay (Nayampally) who are my collaborators on the song. They were very supportive and enthusiastic about the treatment and that gave me the confidence to finish the song.”

Voyage 2 has “Suprabhatam” for its opening track, which was very much intentional according to Ghanekar. The rest of the album has been born out of Ghanekar’s journey around the globe. “From Costa Rica to Boston, Paris to Denver, Nashville to New York City, and, of course, much of it being assembled here in my studio in Mumbai,” he adds.  

In addition to the likes of Dey, ace drummer Gino Banks, percussionist Taufiq Qureshi, bass guitarist Tim Lefebvre are also among instrumentalists featured on the album.

By way of summing it up, Ghanekar calls Voyage 2 “one big genre-less groove party.” Featuring all women vocalists at the front and instrumentalists like Dey and Mauritian bassist Linley Marthe, Ghanekar says “the most important cohesive quality” of the album is its celebration of women. Intentionally recorded as an album that he will take live to stages – something Ghanekar says he worked on more with this than Voyage in 2015 – “Nacho” is the groove and dance centerpiece of Voyage 2. “The live show will be one big groove party and I am looking forward to getting back on the road,” Ghanekar adds.