INVITING listeners into his headspace during the first movement control order (MCO) last year, Ganesh Bala takes Solitude into an uncanny direction compared to his previous two albums. Released in early January this year, the new album is carried entirely by the multi-faceted musician’s piano proficiency.
“The self-titled first album is like a jazz fusion album, and the second is the same but it was recorded live. This one was special to me, because I had always wanted to have a solo piano album. I am a pianist to begin with, as I started learning music with it. It has always been there for me to do a solo album,” Ganesh told theSun.
A personal time capsule of sorts for what happened last year, Solitude is more than an album for the musician. Marking the end of 2020 and hailing the start of 2021 aside, the solo piano album is part of a journey that sees Ganesh expanding on love for the piano and the musician utilising a single instrument to carry an entire album.
This stands in stark contrast to his previous two albums, where Ganesh merged contemporary jazz with classic Indian music through the use of acoustic instruments such as the sitar, classical guitar and piano with electronic synthesisers in the artiste’s original compositions.
“As a musician, it’s always a challenge to do a solo album, because there is no other instrument backing you and you have to show your capability as a musician.”
Rearranged, recorded, mixed and mastered by Ganesh, the jazz musician explained that his approach to the album involved “reinterpreting” modern songs through the looking glass of impressionist music of the late 19th century that Ganesh himself is a fan of.
Highlights in Solitude includes cover versions of P. Ramlee’s Ibu, Ennio Morricone’s Cinema Paradiso, and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s My Favourite Things.
“The songs that I chose were from all of my favourite songs. I was playing them at random, and out of those, I picked whichever I liked.”
Elaborating his thought process on how he chose the songs and the conceptual approach towards the album as a whole, Ganesh said that it was all about the “What if ...” that is prevalent in the mind of musicians whenever they are brainstorming a way to create music.
“One of the most challenging things for a composer is to come up with ‘What ifs’. So, whenever we practise, arrange, or compose something, it always starts with a ‘What if I take a pop song, and I play it in a different genre?”
Pleased with the outcome, Ganesh noted that he would definitely return to the concept of solo piano albums in future.
“I think making these solo albums will always be there for me.”
