The ground breaking musical partnership between Indian musician Shri Sriram and Hammonds Saltaire Band will be released on CD on December 4th.

Just a Vibration

'Just a Vibration' is described as 'Indian music meets the traditional brass band' with a concert at Rich Mix in London on November 22nd as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival programme, also giving the partnership a high profile pre-launch boost.

The album was conceived by award-winning musician/composer Shri Sriram (above) featuring Hammonds Saltaire directed by Morgan Griffiths alongside sitar star Jasdeep Singh Degun and powerhouse drummer Marc Layton-Bennett.

Incredible sound

"I only started listening to brass bands recently,"Shri Sriram admitted before teaming up with the Yorkshire band. "I thought what an incredible sound they make and what fantastic music we could make together.

I'm fascinated with combining sounds and styles and since sound is 'just a vibration', I decided to turn that phrase into the title for this project.

Own syntax

He added: "'Just a Vibration' uses a music vocabulary created out of brass and Indian classical concepts which has its own syntax, pronunciation and accent.

One track is based on the tanpura, a four-stringed Indian drone instrument which is translated to the four-part harmony of brass, whilst another is based on a complex tabla piece and some filmic Wagner/Bollywood style drama. The sitar fits in as if it always belonged in a brass band."

Hooked

Shri and 'Just a Vibration's' arranger, jazz musician/composer Ben Castle added: "The moment Shri mentioned the project to me I was hooked!

I love a challenge and I'm intrigued by the meeting of cultures and musical styles. There's a long history of brass bands in my family but being a saxophonist I don't often get the chance to work with them.

I only started listening to brass bands recently. I thought what an incredible sound they make and what fantastic music we could make togetherShri Sriram

Comfort zone

He added: "I decided 'Just a Vibration' should be more than just a brass band playing Indian music or Indian musicians playing brass music.

It was quite a challenge to ensure all the individual elements of the project were true to themselves but far enough out of their comfort zone.

Shri knew what he wanted so I then translated that to the instruments and then we fine tuned everything. We learned a lot from each other by working together and it was great fun."