Aqura

Advaita (India)

Indie Fusion


9th February 2020 - 7 PM Onwards - Gandhi Ground

Advaita is a band from New Delhi India formed in 2004. With more than 400 concerts in India and abroad, two successful albums, and several awards and accolades under their belt, Advaita is one of India’s leading musical acts.


The band is credited with creating a new contemporary Indian sound, hailed by music lovers as well as critics as truly original and progressive. The melodic and rhythmic intricacy and inherent spirituality of Indian Classical music is interwoven with the energy and youthfulness of rock, pop and electronica to create something unique - at once traditional and modern.


In 2009 Advaita launched their first album on EMI records titled ‘Grounded in Space’, catapulting the status of the band. Recorded at the famed Yash Raj studios in Mumbai, the album was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. Later that year Advaita was one of only four bands to be selected by famous British producer John Leckie for the British Council Soundpad Project, recording two songs for a globally released compilation album, followed by a five city tour of the UK. The band would go on to play more international concerts, with trips to Singapore, South Africa, Maldives and Egypt.


Advaita’s fan base was further boosted by their presence on the inaugural Indian seasons of MTV Coke Studio and MTV Unplugged.


Following this the band released their second album titled ‘The Silent Sea’ in 2012 (also on EMI records). The album went on to win ‘Best Rock Album’ at the annual Global Indian Music awards as well as ‘Best Album’ at the Rolling Stone Jack Daniel Rock Awards for 2012-13. Close on the heels of these awards, the band was featured on prime time TV shows like ‘The Dewarists’ on Star World and ‘Sound Trek’ on the Fox Traveller channel.


In 2016 Advaita’s track Mofunk was adapted and used in the film Wazir starring Amitabha Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar, which led to attention towards the band from a larger mainstream audience. Around the same time, the band also had the honour of performing for the President of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan along with Strings (Pakistan) and LRB (Bangladesh) as part of a South Asian unity concert.


After a brief period of hiatus and a few line up changes, Advaita burst back on the scene in 2018 with a spectacular concert at the Oddbird Theatre, New Delhi. In the concert titled ‘Unison’ the band presented fresh new material and a reinvigorated live set. Live videos from the concert have been released as singles on Youtube and have become extremely popular with fans. The band plans to turn this new material into a full length album soon.


Line Up : Ujwal Nagar - Hindustani Vocals Chayan Adhikari - Western Vocals, Guitars Anindo Bose - Keyboards Abhishek Mathur - Guitars Aman Singh Rathore - Drums Gaurav Chintamani - Bass Guitar Rohit Prasanna - Flute Sarthak Pahwa - Tabla and Percussions