Talvin Singh performs at a concert in Calcutta.

It has been a long journey since Talvin Singh made his debut with Calcutta Cyber Caf? in 1996, which grew out of his fascination for the hugely popular music genres in the UK in the 90s, namely Ambient and Drum ‘’ Bass. So when he performed at a concert in Calcutta last week, the internationally acclaimed British-Asian tabla player had more to offer than just technical wizardry with his electronic instruments.

He played a perfect accompanist to talented Soumik Datta who was simply brilliant in his rendition of raga nayaki kanara on sarod in the first half of the programme, titled Rhythm--Strings. The recital was neatly divided into alap, jod and bandish. The young artiste’s confident strokes brilliantly captured the playful yet brooding temper of the raga. It’s quite a difficult raga to play, but Soumik met the challenge with considerable ?lan. Though it can’t be said that his combination of notes in the introductory section as well as in the jod was extraordinary, Soumik still managed to create an impact with his well executed mirs. The brief alap led to an impressive jod bearing testimony to the artiste’s fluency over the three octaves. What is quite striking about Soumik’s style is that his strokes are smooth and highly pleasing to the ears. The bandish portion accounted for some entertaining tukdas from Talvin, who seemed happy to let Soumik dominate the classical half of the show. In fact, the understanding between the artiste’s was commendable.

The second half of the programme was on contemporary or fusion music. As one of the event coordinators pleaded after the end of the first part, “Don’t leave. It’s time for fusion.” In other words, he implied that this was going to be more entertaining. Well, it was not quite so. There were three performers ? Talvin, Soumik and, as Talvin put it, the Apple Mac laptop. But the tabla, the electronic beats and the sarod failed to blend together into a coherent whole. The fusion pieces were a mish mash of different ragas and taals. Talvin was as usual eliciting a huge round of applause from the audience for what is known as his characteristic trance-like rhythmic surges. What was also very appealing about the show was the rapport the artiste’s shared with the audience. At one point, when a member of the audience was about to leave the auditorium, Talvin told her, “Auntiji, I promise you’d find the compositions very interesting.” And he didn't really disappoint.