TL Mazumdar Teams Up with Vasuda Sharma on New Single, ‘Rise Above’

Musician TL Mazumdar personifies multi-culturalism like few others do. The mere mention of words such as ”˜genre’ or ”˜home’ can elicit a host of mind-bending perspectives from the Indo-German artist who lives in Mannheim, Germany. “I’ve come to a point where I can’t really think in genres or styles anymore. Asking me what my influences are is like asking me what my religion is. I have none. And all,” says Mazumdar, rendering useless any potential questions about the ”˜style’ of music he’s most at home with.

TL Mazumdar. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

If his latest single “Rise Above” is anything to go by, Mazumdar treads musical and linguistic boundaries with ease and confidence. The collaborative song features Mumbai folk-fusion artist Vasuda Sharma singing shlokas with Mazumdar chanting the rough English translation of the same.

“Rise Above” was initially planned to be a part of an EP, titled Naree, the concept of which took cue from the unfortunate Nirbhaya incident of 2012. “For a lot of people in the West it was not so much the actual rape but some of the reactions that followed which shattered their somehat rose-coloured image of yoga-practising peace-lovers. The sad part is how things went to the other extreme and every Indian male was looked at suspicously out of the blue.” With Naree, Mazumdar wanted to offer a counterpoint to the stereotypical image of Indian women, by means of featuring strong women artists.

The team-up with Sharma on “Rise Above” happened when Mazumdar reconnected with her in 2013 at a gig at music conference IndieEarth Xchange. Before that, the musicians had met at Mumbai’s Blue Frog where they were both playing a double-bill gig. Says Mazumdar, “I remember being very touched by her unpretentious demeanour and the sincerity in the way she went about her set. Also, if I remember correctly, nobody else was doing what she was back then in India [she was doing her solo loop-station thing].”

While work on Naree is still on [“I am hoping I might find some more interesting people to work with on that in the future, he says”] Mazumdar is currently working on his third album. “This one was written completely the past two, completely nomadic years of my life, so it does have a more solitary vibe to it,” he says.