In August 2017, when six-piece instrumental outfit The Revisit Project released its first music video ‘Here We Go’, little did they know that the feat would not only reach to the right and intended target audience but also lead to comparisons with their influences like Weather Report and Snarky Puppy. Facebook’s algorithm had done its trick, but most of the credit, naturally, went to the sound that arrived with the music video. In the next four months, the video received over 100k views, and ‘Here We Go’ evolved into an album.

Today, on 13 January, the band released its debut studio album which looks like a desirable attempt to redefine the nature of jazz. Frequently, bands pop up in metropolitan cities and experiment with one of the oldest musical genres and more often than not, the approach lays fruitful sonic output. The Revisit Project is no different. A month after releasing the title track, the outfit continued to create the buzz prior to the album release with the launch of another single ‘Take A  Leaf’. Not moving away from jazz entirely, the single subtly incorporates essential elements to provide a neo-soul vibe to it. And that’s what the band’s saxophonist and co-founding member Abhay Sharma finds most fascinating about the entire cohesive set-up. “We get bored of the same sound,” says Sharma, “with six members, we bring our respective ideas and that leads to some amazing results.” Mixed and mastered in Ferris Wheel Studios, the band has laid no stone unturned as far as the production is concerned, and the uncompromising stance on quality of the same reflects on the album.

One would wonder, listening to the sound, that the band has obvious inspirations – as mentioned in the first paragraph, but that’s far from the truth, argues Sharma. “In fact, in my case, my father introduced me to the 40s, 50s and 60s Indian music composers like C. Ramchandra, Shankar Jaikishan, R.D. Burman and others. A lot of my education has arrived from listening to old school Indian film music,” adds Sharma. The saxophonist, who also performs as a session musician with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy emphasizes that there’s a lot to learn from how Bollywood composers approach their live set-ups. “When they’re on the stage, it’s like they only speak the language of music. It’s of course great to share the stage with them but you feel so intimidated, it acts as a reminder that we have a long way to go,” confesses the young instrumentalist on The Revisit Project’s journey. Not just Bollywood or western experimental jazz acts, Sharma believes one does not have to look too far to get inspired. “Look at Kush Upadhyay and what he’s doing. Musicians like him drive you to work harder and enjoy music at the same time,” says Sharma.

When not jamming or creating music together for The Revisit Project, the members occupy themselves with other respective projects involving Bollywood, studio work or another independent projects. Sharma, who dropped out of school, to pursue music, reunited with the school friends to form The Revisit Project, and with the latest addition of Sayan Sinha on bass, Raeed Azim on keys and Ishwar Dixit on guitars, he finally believes that the band looks set to scale the uphill task of creating an identity on the live music front.  The album release is the first stepping stone towards the long term goal.

Speaking of the album, Sharma continues to emphasize that, although, the sound will commonly incline towards jazz, the options remain open to experiment with different relevant sounds. “In our debut album, there’s a song for neo-soul listeners, a song for experimental jazz lovers, a song for those who like funk, a song by a lover and a ballad. So, we are not shying away from stretching our limits,” concludes Sharma.

The band, for the first time, organized an online gig – thanks to the digital platform Playtoome – yesterday, where the musicians performed the entire album and more, a day prior to the album release. The six-track album has been released on YouTube and Soundcloud, and Sharma believes this will set the ball rolling. “Of course, 2018 will feature more studio efforts. But first things first, and we kick off our three-city tour of Mumbai-Pune-Bangalore in March with a hope that it evolves into a bigger tour,” signs off Sharma with that optimistic note.

The Revisit Project is:

Abhay Sharma - saxophone

Ishwar Dixit - guitars

Abhijit Sood - drums

Raeed Ehsan Azim - keys

Sayan Sinha - bass

Varun Rajasekharan - percussions.