INFORMATION
| Artist Birtday : | 01/11/1974 (Age 50) |
| Born In : | West Bromwich, England |
| Occupation(s) : | Musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, film composer, DJ |
| Genres : | Electronic, Indian classical, Indian folk, rock, hip hop, EDM, jazz |
Karsh Kale is known more popularly in his capacity as a famous British musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, film composer, and DJ. he has become a prominent figure in defining the Asian Underground genre by mixing disparate genres of music such as Indian classical, and folk with electronica, rock, pop and ambient music. Besides production, remixing, and DJ work, he is one of the pioneering figures for his tabla drumming and film composition. His two songs “Distance” and “One Step Beyond” got the opportunity to be featured on the Windows Vista sound system.
Early life
Karsh kale was born on 1 November 1974 as Utkarsh Kale to Indian Marathi-speaking immigrants in West Bromwich, UK. After moving his parents to New York in 1977, he was brought up in Stony Brook, New York.
Kale started taking interest in drums and in the due course, it led him to be a tabla player. Being very much informed about music, his father made him aware of the broad range of music including traditional Indian music, classical, rock, and even early hip-hop. Due to these wide ranges of influences, Kale formed his own style, that in the end led him to his “electric tabla”.
Tabla Beat Science
In 2000, It was Bill Laswell who founded Tabla beat Science and created history by inviting Kale, along with Zakir Hussain, Sultan Khan, Talvin Singh, and Trilok Gurtu on a single platform. In the same year, They released Tala Matrix together. Due to its uniqueness, this album has found a way to be one of the most influential Asian Fusion albums to date, and the group ventured into a tour, Later, one of the shows of the tour was released on DVD.
Solo career
While studying Music Production and Performance at New York University, Karsh kale started his career in music, working as a session musician and playing in bands.
In 1999, Kale made his first E.P, Classical Science Fiction From India”, and started hosting events named “Futureproof” which included DJ and electric tabla sets twice a week.
These events were noticed by San Francisco’s label Six Degrees Records. Soon after, Kale was the first Indo-American who signed a single recording contract in the U.S. and this move led him to make his first full-length album, Realize, in 2001. According to Kale, “Realize” was a major milestone for what Kale called “Asian Massive”, which was followed by 2002’s Asian Massive Tour, which was joined by label mates Midival Punditz and Cheb I Sabbah, the Asian Massive tour achieved great success and ignite sparks that inspired artist from many other U.S cities to do the same.
In 2006, Kale released his third album “Broken English” which was completely different from his previous Albums.
After that, he released “Breathing Under Water”, in 2007, in which he collaborated with sitar instrumentalist Anoushka Shankar.
He also received GIMA Awards for best fusion album for the same, beating A.R. Rahman.
Other work
Kale has also worked as a composer for Bollywood and crossover films such as Chutney Popcorn, Indian Cowboy, Ocean of Pearls, and Pyaar Impossible!
He provided music for some Bollywood hi movies like “ Fashion”, and recently “Luck” and “Kambakht Ishq”. Kale worked with Midival Punditz in order to restore the 1973 classic Bruce Lee Film “Enter The Dragon” which was presented live by them in many prestigious venues around the world. Kale is to work with the Pundits on future movie projects like Ajay Naidu’s “Ashes”.
His music has got the chance to be featured on TV such as the HBO series “Real Time with Bill Maher” and “True Blood”.
Kale has also worked with many Indian artists such as Warren Mendonsa, Monali Thakur, Benny Dayal, Apeksha Dandekar, and more. Some of the series produced by him are the most innovative and have well-received tracks.
