Kolkata act Amyt Datta Electric Power Quartet. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
In the works for nearly three years, Kolkata act Amyt Datta Electric Power Quarter – led by Kolkata’s avant-garde, virtuoso guitarist Amyt Datta – have finally released their debut album Electric.
Released today, Sept. 21, via Free School Street Records on CD, the Amyt Datta Electric Power Quartet – comprising Datta, drummer Sambit Chatterjee aka SambitC, bassist Aakash Ganguly and keyboardist Samrat Mukherjee aka Thirdself – will launch the album on Sept. 28 at Skinny Mo’s Jazz Club in Kolkata.
With terms like “power” and “electric” intentionally being made synonymous with his new band and the material from his solo albums over the years, Datta has clearly put together a solid team of instrumentalists to drive Electric. It’s a collection of eight songs across Datta’s various, mind-bending albums including Ambiance de Danse (2013), Pietra Dura (2015), Amino Acid (2016) and Red Plant (2021).
Datta adds drummer Chatterjee (from post-rock band Aswekeepsearching) as co-producer and co-arranger on Electric, which opens in an appropriately mysterious fashion on songs like “Introit” and “Red Plant.” There’s an eerie, atmospheric intro to “Stain” that whips up a sonic storm, ebbing and flowing. “Black Pages” originally had an acoustic element to it on Pietra Dura, but here, it gets a soaring, psychedelic arrangement. “Erraticus” is suitably dexterous, as is the pacey and dramatic “Ironic Bironic” that has sometimes been the opening song of the quartet’s live shows. After a packed display of prowess on “Pulse,” Electric closes with “Dark City,” the heavy and wavy song that’s not been part of any Datta album in the past, unlike all previous seven tracks. Capturing the intensity of a live performance, the album is mixed by Sayan Ghosh and mastered by Bengaluru-based Leslie Charles (from rock band Thermal And A Quarter).
Datta tells Rolling Stone India about the process that he took for the band to join him on Electric, “Instrumental music doesn’t contain conventional words… but it has deep and delicate expressions which is difficult to be described in words. With the band, I would take them through a ‘sonic picture’ of the images that I had in my head… sometimes a title or the ‘mechanics of music’ prompt images that dictate how a musician navigates through the script/ scene or the composition.”
In a post on Instagram, the band collectively explained the process and timeline. The post says, “We started arranging parts for this album fall of 2021. Amyt Datta called each of the band members and they sat in [Sambit Chatterjee]’s studio for months, locking themselves up for hours just to understand the stories Amyt was weaving for the band, a unique sound. [Aakash Ganguly] had played in Amyt’s setups so he knew the music but this sound was fresh with [Samrat Mukherjee] being a phenomenal keyboard player himself who offered other worldly sounds that Amyt was looking for, a new force to reckon with.”
Hear ‘Electric’ below.
