Mridangist Viveick Rajagopalan joins hands with rappers and dhol artistes for his next show

Ta Dhom Project’s next in Mumbai

Trained in Carnatic music, mridangam artiste Viveick Rajagopalan was also exposed to different genres such as electronic, drum ‘n’ bass and jazz. His idea of connecting different musical communities led to the formation of Ta Dhom Project, which combines rhythmic Indian classical elements with hip-hop.

“It all began at these morning park sessions where I began teaching rappers the south Indian percussion language of konnakol,” says Viveick. “The syllables ‘ta’ and ‘dhom’ symbolise two worlds and two cultures. Classical music and hip-hop are representative of the very concept of two worlds, and yet, there’s a harmony that lies between their duality. Our challenge has been to retain the ethos of this collaboration, and create something that had an identity of its own,” he says.

Having released its self-titled album and also being privileged to perform at the Womad and Shambala festivals in the U.K. in 2019, Ta Dhom Project is set to expand its horizons further. On June 10, the group will be joined by The Dhols Of Maharashtra at a show organised and hosted by Royal Opera House, Mumbai, in collaboration with Avid Learning.

Viveick will play mridangam, percussion and the digital audio workstation Ableton. He will be joined by a trio of rappers, consisting of MC Dehaati aka Akash Pandey (who will rap in Bhojpuri), MC Artslord aka Kalaivanan Kannan (Tamil) and MC Khoj aka Ganesh Sonkamble (Marathi and Hindi). They will be accompanied by Sayar Mitra on bass and Joshua Fernandes on keyboards.

Though it will mainly be a Ta Dhom Project set, they will be joined at some point by The Dhols of Maharashtra, comprising Sawangi Savdekar and Yamini Khamkar on dhols, Pranav Dixit on taasha and Gaurang Dalvi on jhaanj. Says Viveick, “Pranav is the director of the group, which is from Dombivli. All of them have day jobs, but have a passion for percussion. For me, this concert is very special, as there is an additional musical element.”

Besides this concert, Viveick is excited for another reason. He has composed three songs for the film Chidiakhana, directed by Manish Tiwari. This is his first as music director in a full-length feature film. Written by Anil Pandey, the songs are sung by Pravesh Mallick, Rajiv Sundaresan, Paroma Dasgupta and Smita Jain. The soundtrack was released recently on streaming platforms.

Viveick has composed and produced music for over 300 ad films, besides scoring music for British sitcom Mumbai Calling in 2009. In Zoya Akhtar’s 2019 film Gully Boy, he composed the rap song ‘India 91’. His albums have included Dancing With Shiva in 2007 and Moving Images the following year.