Dhanak Dhin is personally my favourite example to share the core values and beliefs of Music Basti. It is a community music project bringing together artists and youth volunteers with children, and youth who are ‘at-risk’ (formerly children who were living or working on the streets as beggars, rag pickers, orphans, abandoned or runaway) and creating a positive engagement between otherwise very separate sections of society.

Using the theme of  monsoon rain, the album was created in the summer of 2011 and is now available for free download on their official website. According to the good folks at Music Basti, a “free download can help more than you think”.

Tracklist
‘Saawan Kabhi Jaana Nahin’ – Shubh Saran and Smiti Malik
Saawan Kabhi Jaana Nahi by rachitsbarak

‘Kaale Badal’ – Abhishek Mathur and Suhail Yusuf Khan (of Advaita)
Kaale Baadal by rachitsbarak

‘Boondon Mein’ – Five8
Boondon Mein by rachitsbarak

Check out a video about Dhanak Dhin below.

Music Basti :: Khushi Home for Girls from tahska on Vimeo.

So what exactly is Dhanak Dhin? According to Music Basti

Dhanak Dhin an original music album project features former street-children and artists’ work on the theme of the monsoon season in Delhi. With songs created by artists including Suhail Yusuf Khan and Abhishek Mathur (of Advaita), Five8, and Shubh Saran and Smiti Malik, over 60 former street-children of the Dil Se Campaign, Delhi (Center for Equity Studies and Aman Biradari) collaborated to create music through a unique community music project. It celebrates the voices of at-risk children and youth through the freedom to create, express, cooperate and develop shared outcomes, but also global outreach by giving their voices the power to travel globally and transcend not just geographic but also social, economic, cultural, linguistic and other borders. Music Basti created Dhanak Dhin, meaning rainbow lyrics in Urdu, with the support of Project Ahimsa and local artists. Dhanak Dhin’s film partner also include NowDelhi with a series of three short films launching online this week onwards.

The album will be available for free download on December 10. Music Basti Project Officer and Founder, Faith Gonsalves filled us in with more details about Dhanak Dhin

Dhanak Dhin is personally my favorite example to share the core values and beliefs of Music Basti. It is a community music project bringing together artists and youth volunteers with children and youth who are ‘at-risk’ (formerly children who were living or working on the streets as beggars, rag pickers, orphans, abandoned or runaway) and creating a positive engagement between otherwise very separate sections of society.

Learning music through Music Basti (and otherwise) not only gives access to children to navigate through a world unexplored, but projects also strive to create access to opportunities that are unique, meaningful and give agency to the voices of children whose rights are violated or not realized. With the many benefits of learning and interacting with music aside, participation in this kind of community arts process helps to promote the skills and abilities of children, as well as their sense of identity, confidence and articulation. This allows the children participating not only the freedom to create, express, cooperate and develop shared outcomes, but also global outreach through the online launch, distribution and sharing of album, associated films or content. Dhanak Dhin celebrates the voices of children-at-risk, sharing their messages and identities through music gives them the power to travel globally to transcend social, cultural, religious, linguistic, age and other barriers.

The mission of Music Basti in the concrete is to strengthen the voices of children, while raising awareness also on social global causes. Through Dhanak Dhin we have been able to truly take achieving this mission to a different level, with the support of many partners, artists and volunteers we have been able to take a project and message from children who are otherwise living outside the periphery and purview of most people’s everyday existence, a project that began as fairly microcosmic, to something that people all over the world can listen to, enjoy and share.

More from Dhanak Dhin soon. In the meantime, check out this interview with some of the artists about the journey of creating this album.

Interview with the Artists – “Saavan Kabhi Jaana Nahi” from Music Basti on Vimeo.

Photos by Tanushree Singh

Performances start at 6pm everyday. Dates and lineup below.

December 2
Indigo Children (New Delhi)
Bohemian (Bangladesh)
Metal Zone Oasis Band (Myanmar)
Petri Dish Project (Mumbai)
Zeb & Haniya (Pakistan) (pictured)

December 3
The Maldivian (Maldives)
Boomarang (Mizoram)
Advaita (New Delhi)
Kingdom Hum (Bhutan)
Motherjane (Cochin)

December 4
Fanoos (Afghanistan)
Thriloka (Sri Lanka)
Robin and the New Revolution (Nepal)
Junkyard Groove (Chennai)
Salim Sulaiman (India)

The festival takes place about two weeks after the Bacardi NH7 Weekender, in Pune. Check out our coverage of the festival here. December also sees the Sunburn festival in Goa. Check out the entire lineup (for Day 1 and 2) here.

Photos by Shiv Ahuja

Hipnotribe
This funk-rock band kicked off The Dewarists Stage performances with a fusion of instruments including tabla and percussion, playing an array of jazz, uptempo ’70s rock, and their most recent track to hit MTV, ‘Dark and Delicious’. The laid-back vibe of their set got the audience appropriately geared up for the rest of the performances.

Paresh Kamath of Hipnotribe at The Dewarists Stage

Advaita
New Delhi band Advaita were putting things in perspective on fusion. The band manages to channel their diverse influences and interpose conflicting styles of music in a manner which makes them hard to hate. They initially played music off their upcoming album due early next year and then moved on to more well-known material. The band effortlessly surpassed expectations.

Advaita

Soulmate
The Shillong blues rockers began with a riveting Floyd-ian guitar solo by Rudy Wallang, who can make a guitar moan and squeal with his nimble fingers. Lead vocalist Tipriti Kharbangar could tint glass with her cracking blues vocals. Every word she belted out made the crowd scream. She says, “I sing to touch people. I want you to feel the music”. With vocals that reach out and touch, and with guitar licks that coil around you, people were caught in a Soulmate vice-grip.

Tipriti of Soulmate

The Raghu Dixit Project
Dixit represented the south at The Dewarists Stage on day two with his band that included a new flautist. He started with his new song ‘Masti Ki Basti’ from The Dewarists TV show. Even though he only played four songs, the upbeat nature of the set resonated through the audience. He sang two Kannada songs too, one of which he made the audience sing back. Funnily, no one could remember the Kannada lyrics, people tended to scream out gibberish because they were feeling the happy Dixit vibe. He even stopped mid-song because people weren’t dancing enough. As Raghu Dixit said, “Don’t worry be happy but if you want to worry, then I don’t give a damn.”

Raghu Dixit

THE OTHER STAGE
While The Dewarists Stage was prepping between artist sets, The Other Stage provided the acoustic alternative. The Other Stage featured performances from singer-songwriters like Ayush Shreshta, alternative rockers Fire Exit, powerful blues-punk acoustic from Alisha Batth, and stripped down rocker – Siddharth Basrur.

Ayush Shreshta

British electronica artist Imogen Heap headlined The Dewarists Stage. Find out more here.

Check out the lineup of day three at The Dewarists Stage here.
For a live update of all that is happening at Magarpatta City, go here.
If you can’t make it for the Bacardi NH7 Weekender, watch some performances live online.

Photos by Kunal Kakodkar

Lead guitarist Abhishek Mathur uses a Gibson Les Paul, which he feels is more “texturally inclined”, and adds great value to the sound of folk rockers

It’s slightly difficult to put it down in words, but I’m going to try. The Gibson Les Paul is a steady, and very meaty guitar. It significantly adds to the sound I like to bring about, and I like to believe I’m a texturally inclined player, in terms of style, so it really does help.

Previously we spoke to Sidd Coutto (of Tough on Tobacco), Ankur Tewari (of Ankur & The Ghalat Family), Randolph Correia of Pentagram and Shaa’ir + Func and the guys from menwhopause about their guitars. More from a Gibson fanboy soon (follow Gibson Guitar India on Facebook to find more indie rockers who use Gibson guitars). As always, stay tuned.

Abhishek Mathur of Advaita

Advaita will play The Dewarists Stage at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender. Tickets are on sale now!

Visit the official Gibson Guitar India website and find your own Gibson. Follow Gibson Guitar India on Facebook and Twitter for updates too!