Three words come repeatedly from Resmi Sateesh. Sufi, folk and acoustic. Not that they are new to her. But all of them together will be new. It will be an acoustic version of sufi and folk, says the singer, who has been associated with a certain style of singing and who doesn’t wish to be stereotyped so. So she, through her music company ReSa Roots, is bringing out a series of experimental concerts, and the first of these will happen in Kochi on April 21.
“You know the kind of music I have been doing. A little loud, rock-ish. I want to deconstruct all that. I am making new collaborations,” Resmi says. In this first collaboration she is bringing down an artiste from Sweden — Larisa Ljungkrona, a musician and composer working in Gothenburg, who will be playing the accordion for Resmi’s show.
On the percussion - a tabla – she has roped in young Radhika George, who has finished her 8th grade in the Trinity Guildhall exams. “I am extremely happy that there are these two women with me in this show,” Resmi says.
The three women will perform with a man – Shekhar Sudhir, who plays the violin and the guitar. “He is a self-taught musician.” This particular concert will be called ReSaThantra. “It is an exploration of music. From the most simple pure emotion of love to really grave social issues, music has been always been a way of expression, intervention,” Resmi adds. It is going to be a small concert for a limited audience, at the Forplay Productions, Panampilly Nagar, Kochi.
It has been a good year for Resmi in other ways too. She has done a lot of playback singing, but they are all just going to come out and she feels it is too early to talk about it. There will be more collaborations coming up. “What I don’t like are when some artistes criticise another, because they think only their music is good. They don’t open up to others, or appreciate others. It is then that an artist begins to die.” Resmi through her collaborations with different kinds of musicians is therefore, also making a point.
