Hear Julian Casablancas Lend Vocals to One of His Favorite New Acts
“Helping a guy from a tiny corner of India’s rock & roll dreams come true,” the Strokes frontman says of Hammarsing Kharhmar’s debut EP as Exhibition
Hear a track from ‘Last Dance,’ a new EP by Exhibition on Julian Casablancas’ Cult Records, featuring vocals from the Strokes frontman. Photo: Casablancas: Moses Namkung/CC by 2.0. Kharhmar: Ruvan Wijesooriya
Hammarsing Kharhmar grew up in the small Indian town of Shillong, known for its rolling hills and waterfalls. Kharhmar learned guitar there before he moved to Boston and started the New Wave group Mon Khmer, whose hypnotic psychedelia incorporates rock, jazz and pedal-steel sounds. Kharhmar later joined Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.’s solo band in 2008, playing on 2015’s Momentary Masters and another Hammond LP, out this fall.
Now, Kharhmar is working with a different Stroke: Julian Casablancas, who is releasing Kharhmar’s first solo EP (under the pseudonym Exhibition), on his Cult Records label. Casablancas also appears on the release ”“ something he rarely does outside of Daft Punk. Casablancas sings on “No One There,” an ethereal track marked by Kharhmar’s fluid, dissonant lead guitar lines.
Writing from the road, where he and the Strokes just played to 90,000 fans in Argentina, Casablancas tells Rolling Stone he wanted to put out the album to help “a guy from a tiny corner of India’s rock & roll dreams come true.”
Exhibition’s ‘Last Dance’ EP is out April 14th. Listen to “No One There” below:
