Kutumba goes to Coke Studio

Since 2004, the six-member folk instrumental ensemble, Kutumba, has been creating waves with their use of traditional musical instruments to put up lively performances.



Arun Manandhar, Kiran Nepali, Pavit Maharjan, Raju Maharjan, Rubin Shrestha, and Siddhartha Maharjan have toured across the country as well as performed internationally many times, infusing the melodies of sarangi, tungna, madal, basuri, damaru, jhyamta, and dhime baja to create sounds of folk music. [break]



After their last album ‘Utsarga’ in 2010, they have finally come up with ‘Karmath’ which they released on October 4. The album is the band’s sixth offering and has been released after a hiatus of three years. The interval was a busy one for the band who performed at various schools in association with Ncell, gave a number of free performances for music lovers and also visited many places around the country as part of Save the Children’s infant mortality awareness campaign ‘For Everyone.’



An exciting development for the band was being part of Coke Studio Pakistan’s new season. Kiran, Rubin, and Siddhartha have provided segments of Nepali music for the sixth season of the popular music series, contributing tunes in sarangi and flute.





Photo Courtesy: Kutumba



Coke Studio Pakistan had sent an email to the band three months ago, explains Band Manager Arun Gurung, interested in having them play for Coke Studio. “They were in a process of recording new sounds. It seems they had already done their research and they wanted to infuse sounds of Nepal, like sarangi and the sound of bells, in their composition. They particularly said they wanted to record something ethnic,” he said.



After three team members from Coke Studio arrived in Kathmandu, they shot for the series on June 24, recording five compositions of different tracks on sarangi played by Kiran, flute played by Rubin and metal percussion by Siddhartha.



For the folk instrumental band, the experience was exciting, as Maharjan stated, “It felt really good to be part of the show. We’ve been following Coke Studio and we had never imagined that we would also be contributing music for the show.”

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