Henrik Anderson

Collaborating with musicians from Europe to India and beyond, guitarist Henrik Andersen music talks much more than world peace and unity. CluedIN reviews his illustrious albums One Nation Under A Groove and his recent album of Indian connection.

Henrik Andersen is best described as Danish by birth, a Indian by heart and an electric and acoustic guitarist, singer, composer, and sitar player by calling. He has been a professional musician for more than twentyfive years, playing rock, classical, hip-hop, Arabic, and Indian music, funk, jazz, and has released ten albums and written three books about the vocal tradition of Carnatic music. If you want more credits to his name, he is also a cartoonist and a single father.

However, Henrik's music is not just about dancing to his collective band; there is a clear message amongst the trip hop beats and silky sitar, with which he moved from Copenhagen, Denmark to Mumbai, India recently. This is a simple but essential message to connect people through music, to create world peace and love. Henrik describes his music as Nordic Bollywood-soul, hip-hop and pop fusion, with Indian Konnakol-singing-rhythms and sitar. The reason for this mixed up and eclectic tangle of genres comes down to the many influences that Henrik has, ranging from Frank Zappa and Tricky to A. R. Rahman and The Beatles. His last album,˜Guardian Angel" is a melting pot of inspiration and East meets West influences. You Need Music has a dreamy down beat feel with an Indian edge while ˜Hold On To Me" is a beautiful clean-cut pop love ballad. These contrasts with the fun dance jazz of Jazzcrash Hotel and the sultry yet catchy electro self-titled track, "Guardian Angel".

Henrik playing the veena

From the popping Konnakol to twanging sitar, it is obvious that India has played a big part in the creation of Guardian Angel. Henrik says, his previous eight visits to India in which he toured, studied sitar, Konnakol and philosophy sparked his decision to move to India for a long period at the end of August last year, but the reason he loves the country so much is for its creativity. I have always felt very connected to India, felt like it is my country. Indian people are so kind and open. In India, they still respect music as an art. Not an industry, said a visibly emotional Henrik. Indian music is highly infused into Henrik's sound, and he says this is because he is inspired by the odd meter rhythms and the beautiful, complex melodies. Although he has been playing the sitar for ten years, not just traditional music has captured Henrik's heart. I also adore Bollywood. I would like to dance in a Bollywood film, as I am also a professional dancer in Denmark. I would love the chance to act and compose too.

So it seems every flavour of Indian music has enthused Henrik to create this innovative style of his own. However, the real depth to his songs comes from the inherent philosophy that runs colourfully through his album. Henrik conveys the passion he hopes his music divulges. The message is that music still is important. It can heal you and take you through bad times. We've all had some bad times in the band, and music has always helped us through. The track ˜One Nation" for example might not change the world, but it can influence it a little bit. The message is that people of the world are not that different so we should all come together and find similarities rather than differences.Henrik's wholesome values are clear in the uplifting lyrics of his album, but he also states at he doesn't want to just make money from his success. In five years time I don't want to be rich, I just want to be able to live via music. We're not interested in getting famous and being stars. But we are aware we have to get known to be able to record and tour. The goal is not being a star just for the sake of being a star! I respect music too much. It's art. Not pop life and bling-bling.

    Band Photo One Nation Under A Groove
With such wise words it is clear Henrik Andersen ˜One Nation Under A Groove" will capture the heart of India before long. Radio Mirchi in India has played their music as well as airing an hour-long program about Henrik and ˜One Nation Under A Grooves,"  and they plan to tour India as soon as they can. Their success so far is definitely helped by Henrik's smart attitude. He says that music is his life and that he wants to spread his passion to everyone. I know people always feel togetherness when they dance at parties and concerts. Let's try and do exactly that in our everyday life too.

Looks like we could all do with a little bit of Henrik's danceable advice.

Awesome Threesome

  ROR album released by IndiaBeat

The multi-national ensemble trio of Henrik Andersen, Shashank, and Pete Lockett's album  is now available in music stores across India. Released by music label IndiaBeat, is exclusively distributed by EMI India.

Danish musician Henrik Andersen has been inspired by the traditional Carnatic trio of Flute, Veena and Mridangam. This album has near similar elements with Andersen on guitars, Shashank on Flute and Pete Lockett on percussions. Andersen's guitar playing is stylised and crafts the melody on each track. Shashank shows why he is considered one of the most brilliant young flautists in the world. Pete Lockett plays with a restrained style fusing table rhythms with subtle ambient electronics to give the album a unique feel. The Danish word  has different meanings - one of which is "touch".

When asked to describe the music on, Andersen says, Both Pete and I are from Europe and Shashank is from India. So the sound of the group is a mixture of East and West. The three of us all know the basic south Indian musical tradition and that was my main input for gathering these fine musicians. I guess, I wanted to do a traditional trio thing really but when Pete showed up in the studio with his electronic gadgets it inspired me to "go with the flow" and do something spontaneous instead. One moment you might find a alaap and a typical Carnatic sound, the next it transforms into a Beatles-like like tune. Really - it reminds me of being in a taxi in a modern big Indian city like Mumbai: one moment you are surrounded by landscapes of shiny glass and skyscrapers, and the next moment you are surrounded by funky old buildings and street life. One melody with so many contrasts!"