High on Music

With less than a month left for the big event,guitarist Rigzin Nurboo and company makes sure everything is perfect.

With less than a month left for the big event,guitarist Rigzin Nurboo and company makes sure everything is perfect. So,they all dont mind jamming all over again,even though it has been five hours since the session began. July 25 is a big day for him and his band mates from Checkmates. Its a day when they open a show for Delhi-based classic rock band like Parikrama,during the three-day Ladakh Art and Music Festival starting from July 24. The festival is an initiative to collect funds for people of Ladakh,who were badly hit by cloudbursts at the Sindhu Ghat in Leh,in August last year.

Rockers and metalheads from across the country are still waiting for the second-coming of Ladakh Confluence,which was cancelled following the allegations of drug and alcohol abuse last year. But they all have a reason to be happy again with this first time festival,which will have live music from around the world and some interesting acts from India and is all set to promise a musical treat. The festival will take place at the highest plateau against th e picturesque backdrop of Himalayas.

Nurboo knows the enormity of the moment and the massive task they have at hand,but he sounds surprisingly cool,thanks to their gig at Ladakh Confluence in 2009. This local band from Leh,had earlier shared the stage with Soulmates ,Indias more popular blues band,and are now comfortable performing with national and international bands.

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We have been active on the music scene since 2008,a time when we performed in college festivals in and around Delhi. We managed to win few of them and then Ladakh Confluence happened. We got a huge response from the crowd and now we are raring to go again, says an excited Nurboo,lead guitarist of Checkmates. The band will perform eight original compositions at the festival,which includes the perennial favoruite,Bakula a song in the fond memory of Bakula Rinpoche the popular Buddhist lama.

Band members Nurboo,Sonam Gyaltsan on bass guitars,Stanzin Tsega on vocals,Rinchen Tundup on drums and Jigmet Singay Wangchok on guitars were themselves victims of the flood that ravaged the picturesque locales of Leh. The band members feel that now is the time that they want to give something back. We were in Delhi when the flashflood struck Leh but our families were there. We tried at individual levels to raise funds for the people. Now,we have got a chance to do something for the welfare of the people, shares Gyaltsan.

Ladakh Art and Music Festival was the brain-child of Phuntsog Angchok,who himself is a music lover and is the lead guitarist of Chandigarh metal band,Wasted Soul. He now runs a music school in Leh. Everything,Phuntsog or Phunty as he is called by his bandmates,says that it was not easy. Limited budget,paucity of time and material were the main concerns. Since,it was a charity show,we did not have the budget to invite big bands to perform. Thankfully,Parikrama guys came to our rescue and agreed to perform for free. Subhir Malik then took the task in his hands and convinced few more bands to perform at the festival without charging any money.

Previously titled,Re-emergence 2011,the festival endeavours to encourage local artisans,musicians and folk art performers,handicrafts like thangka painting,embroided pashmina shawls,landscape photographers and painters by providing them a platform,not to forget collection of funds for cloud burst victims. Other acts include Pete Lockett,Germany-based Electroswing,Mahesh Vinayakram,Emergence,Abiogenesis,Albatross,Half-Step Down and Raggae Rajahs.

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