Here’s introducing, scratch that, ‘showcasing’ the guitarist, trumpet player and keyboardist of Delhi based unwired and super hard to classify Peter Cat Recording Company and the front runner/ guitarist of the three-piece Begum. In case, all of this is not enough, Kartik Pillai is also the main man behind the experimental electronic project Jamblu.

Pillai, 27, started with Jamblu as a project in 2007. He defines his music as experimenting with cymatic frequencies and basically just doing whatever he wants to. He started his music as a form of sound healing and adds,  “It’s my version of freedom in sound. It’s my little corner where I can explore and be myself. Fuck everyone else.” Since this is the kind of venture where it’s all about expressing one’s kind of music and its different stature, Pillai further describes that Jamblu is basically light music which sometimes acquires the rhythm of noise, which sometimes is disturbing. It is the form of music which can’t be done with guitars or drums, thus the music turns dark to light -Jamblu doesn’t follow all noise; it’s more onto the aesthetics which turns into different transitions. He admits that outright noise is not his path.

Jamblu recently released its third album. TDFDTU, which is a seven song conceptual album. Pillai illustrates all his three albums as “essentially concept albums which means that they all have a very specific thought process behind them.” He does not believe in revealing those ideas but eventually admits that he has to. Generally all the songs are represented by certain concepts and portray a continuous story from one album which runs into another album. The idea is all alteration based on which it does not limit to a certain album.

About himself and his current space in India and globally, Pillai feels “ I fit in an extremely underground and niche circuit which I’ve witnessed, love and adore just because of the beautiful kinds of people I get to meet. Also, being in an experimental scene means that you continuously get to learn no matter how old you are. There’s always something new that you just had no idea about.” He had done tours in Europe- England- China, which he believes were life enhancing as he got to meet some extraordinary people. He has also collaborated with Lifafa for MusicCity in Liverpool. Pillai acknowledges that the people outstation are more open to the kind of music he creates and accepts it much more than that of the Indian audience as the kind of music he produces is very new in India. This leads to more venue gigs outside while still establishing a place in India. Jamblu’s outsource through REProduceArtists and his Listening Room sessions have been one of his favorite moments.

Where the future projects are concerned, Pillai has his hands full. He is working on ideas for Jamblu’s music videos as he considers that without them the essence of his work gets lost in translation. There is also collaboration in cards with the British Producer, Pinch and Ravish Memom from New York. Pillai is also working side by side on his other two projects of PCRC and a theatrical release with Begum.
 

So when Kartik isn’t exactly working making music for a living, he is sitting home making music for the love of it.

You can check out Jamblu’s music here

You can watch the absurdist documentary filmed/edited by Jamblu during his tour to China here