When Whistling Woods International was blown away by a sensationalism fusion concert of recent Filmf

“Music is Energy of life. Try to play less with technique and more with heart” – Mathias Duplessy

“We have to fight to keep the originality of music. The sensation behind it and love should be intact. Never take no for an answer,” were the opening words for the memorable 5th Veda event by French artist and recent Filmfare Award winner (Background score category) Mathias Duplessy who displayed an enormous range of music expression and supporting him was of Mir Mukhtiyar Ali on harmonium who transmitted in his own musical language thereby maintaining the versatility and Rakesh Kumar on dholak who had a fantastic sound and rhythm.

Together they created both a vibrant solo-improvising Sufi voice and a dazzling range of texture and coloration that transformed the nature of music composing and arranging, giving the fusion a more invitingly contemporary sound for audience raised on rock and roll and contemporary music, and enabled a small ensemble to mimic a much bigger one.

Students witnessed them divide the bars up in the most inventive way. Those with more adventurous ears were rewarded by this group who combined Sufi, world music and classical influences (fusion, for lack of a better word) into an amazing concert.

Mathias explored and explained the relevance and importance of background score in a movie by actually self-strumming guitars and giving electronic effects that he both coordinated and improvised within the course of the event. He also praised the very rare live clip of Subhash Ghai’s ‘KARMA’ background score which was shown during the event and said it gave him goose bumps. Also an AV on “The Spiritual Reality” was played which investigated the importance of Universal energy and the ‘Third Eye.’

The standing ovation at the end of evening’s exulting and transcending performance spoke volume about how much the students and staff were awed by their jaw dropping stellar show.