New Clear Fusion @ Martyrs'

In 2006, pulled together by the shared magnetism of their remarkably diverse musical passions, four young and brightly innovative musicians began to fuse their creative fire into the stream of a single, alchemical project. Their message was as perfectly clear as it was undeniably new, and the powerful confluence of their talents promptly gave birth to the unmistakable vitality of sound, rhythm and sheer style that we now know as new_clear fusion. Poised effortlessly on the usually turbulent cusp between tradition and futurism, the band’s members gather together an impressive array of influences and inspirations into an uncompromising and enchanting force. Three of the four musicians rise to the new_clear vision rooted in the profound heritage of the Benares Gharana, that age-old family tradition of Hindustani Classical music enshrined in the holy Indian town of Varanasi – Benares, as it is still affectionately called. The young Mishra brothers, Anand and Dhananjay, sons of the well-loved tabla maestro Pandit Ishwar Lal Mishra, and already professional exponents of their family’s illustrious musical lineage, daringly carry forward the natural marriage of sitar and tabla to the expanding frontier of fusion. Their “brother” in music, Kushal Mishra, himself a prodigious new voice in the evolution of tabla, here turns his sensitivity and distinctive Benares style to the earthy and resonant African Djembe, underpinning the band through the deft manipulation of primal bass currents. And it is Argentinean multi-instrumentalist Martin Folatelli whose unmistakable blend of South American rhythm and soul infuse the new_clear experience with its infectious Latino flavor. Martin’s own ongoing love-affair with Indian music has further brought him in recent years under the careful tutelage of Orissan violin guru Pandit Prakash Mohanti, as well as that of the new_clear’s very own “godfather” and supervisor Ishwar Lal, tabla accompanist over the decades to such musical demigods as Pandit Ravi Shankar, n. rayam, bismilah khan. It is against such a panoramic backdrop that the new_clear vision has swiftly begun to unfold, reaching across continents, bridging musical languages, past and future, delving deeper down into the very core of rhythmic and melodic energy, and ultimately challenging their audience to a new perception of fusion – if not to open a doorway into the universal spirit of sound where perhaps anything is possible.