The Ladakh Confluence Report: Day 2

What do vegabonds, castaways and trippy folks do while they procrastinate on sheep grazing grounds? They dance. And so day two of The Ladakh Confluence kicked off with a drum & bass set by Mumbai’s Tribal Flora. By now we’ve figured things won’t roll before 3pm and so have most of the festival junkies. The Israelis will rule today as the didgerido , the djembe and the hangdrum will fill the windy air at the confluence.

So while the sheep were driven astray, Tribal kicked off the festival with a drum & bass jam, joined by a voice bassist (a multitalented carpenter from Israel, Kastenthey). An hour and lots of dancing later, Davide Swarup and Ortal Palleg took to the Skarma Stage (the main stage) with their hand drum and percussion set. The sun set with them setting a reverberating ode to the sun. Although the performance was heartfelt, an essential vibe was missing. It was way too early for a jam session. The need of the hour was a little song. Which was supplied by this cutesy nervous blues songwriter from UK, Darlini.

The crowd finally started scuttling in by the time Rajasthan Roots took to the stage. Essential a Rajasthani gypsy tribe, the line-up sang Sufi, Raaginis and displayed stellar percussion jams. Tughlaq Khan, the maverick on castinets (clacking instruments), Marjong (voice bass instrument) and the dholak stole the show with his playful and heavy bass line riffs. There wasn’t a hand in the crowd that wasn’t raised and a scream that wasn’t in tune. Soulful mystics singing ballads of the land. Shaa’ir + Func followed with their best set in the chilling night sky. Terrakota, Portugal’s afro-reggae carnival band closed the night.

But the highlight of the evening was Robert Narain’s Drum Circle. An odd bunch of 50 wannabes (some like me) joined Narain around a bonfire with him throwing snares, dholaks, jembes, tambourines, hand drums, trash cans even with sticks and brushes to completely untrained hands. We all jammed around him as he conducted our rhythms and beats. Tribal Flora, Vasundhara Das, Purab Kohli and self joined the jam. Nothing could be a better ending to a day of percussion than to make a beat of one’s own. Unless of course, you also happened to see the mad firangs do a little fire dance on the left of the stage. Such thrills.

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