Any ardent Blackstratblues fan may have had serious scruples about vocal collaborations but if the band’s latest album denotes one undeniable fact, then that revolves around Warren Mendonsa’s arrangement qualities. The same was noticed at the band’s live collaboration at the Royal Opera House early this month featuring Indian classical instrumentalists like Sabir Khan (sarangi) and Ashwin Srinivasan (flute), and Apeksha Dandekar on vocals. The studio effort with singer-songwriter Tejas Menon, released over three months ago with latest album The Last Analog Generation, ended up being more than a ‘one collab per album’ template. Titled ‘Love Song To The Truth’, Menon’s vocals wrapped with the a consistent ambient atmospheric layer further establishes the fact that Mendonsa knew what he wanted from the moment the idea behind the song took formation. The composition, of course, isn’t the first Blackstratblues original with vocal support (the band collaborated with Emma Walter in 2009 for ‘The New Album’ single Older Wise and Grey) and, looking at the pattern, it surely wouldn’t be the last.
 

Listen to the Love Song To The Truth

Unlikely collaborations, if executed right, stay longer with you than the others and a similar outcome arrived with StudioFuzz’s refreshing original with one of the leading vocalists of the country Shubha Mudgal. The renowned vocalist isn’t new to the idea of collaborating with younger minds, but an association with Delhi-based production house featuring FuzzCulture’s Arsh Sharma and Srijan Mahajan incorporated the fortes of the two entities involved. One can easily conclude how comfortable the vocalist and the musicians involved felt throughout the composition, titled Betaabiyan and the essence reflects on how far the song has traveled since its release.

Listen to Betaabiyan

Unlike Blackstratblues or the duo from Studio Fuzz where collaborations on the vocal front may be a rarity, Mumbai-based producer Bandish Projekt totally dominates this exercise, in terms of collaborated releases. After releasing Kar Natak with MC Mawali and MC Tod Fod towards the end of last year, the talented producer belts out the sequel to the first composition titled Dakla. The new song, simply titled Dakla 2, marks the return of Aishwarya Joshi on vocals, accompanied by Maulik Nayak. The single, yet again, strengthens Bandish Projekt's identity in the community as musicians' go-to producer for genres and sounds ranging from baul to rajasthani folk.

 Listen to the song here:

Moving away from collaborations involving vocals, 2017 also welcomed international musicians on some of the established artist's latest studio recordings. 

Demonic Resurrection's Sahil Makhija crowd funded his latest project to offer several collaborations including Kevin Paradis for a recently released single 'The Grand Collapse of Humanity' off his latest solo project Demonstealer album 'The Last Reptilian Warrior'. 

Thaikkudam Bridge has been calmly and systematically exploring its options of collaborations through actors, directors, and musicians of course. And this approach, unlike a few other bands, is not a result of desperate attempt of outreach. The band has gained enough popularity to grab attention of some biggies including Dream Theatre's John Rudess and maestro guitarist Guthrie Govan. In fact, the band's most notable composition this year arrives through a collaboration with Govan's bandmate at The Aristocrats, Marco Minnemann. Listen to 'Inside My Head' featuring the prolific drummer here 

The evolution of Rishabh Seen as a musician, sitarist, arranger and now a collaborator has been fascinating to say the least. From accompanying Arijit Singh on a multi city tour to launching his own singles, 2017 has been a pretty eventful year for the young artist. However, on the music front, the self confessed metalhead further concretes his position as a musician who cannot be ignored with a scintillating collaboration in Ahmedabad based post rock outfit Aswekeepsearching's latest album Zia. 

Titled Sometime Somewhere, the song demanded a sitarist who could effortlessly incorporate fusion elements between the dark themed background that defines AWKS's sound and composed plus soaring solos, thanks to Seen's immaculate playing. 

Listen to Sometime Somewhere by aswekeepsearching ft. Rishab Seen