Karsh Kale (pronounced ''Kursh Kah-lay'', ''कर्ष काळे'' in Marathi; born 1 November 1974) is an Indian-American musician born in England. Known primarily for his experimental

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

playing within

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

contexts, Kale's career has seen him take on roles of an Indian classical tabla player, singer, songwriter, film and TV score composer and DJ. He is considered a pioneer of the

Asian Underground Asian underground is a term associated with various British Asian and South Asian Canadian musicians (mostly Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan) who blend elements of Western underground dance music and the traditional Asian music of th ...

genre, bringing elements of Indian music to Electronica and Dance. His career highlights include touring as the supergroup

Tabla Beat Science Tabla Beat Science was a musical group founded in 1999 by Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell. Its style consists of a mixture of Hindustani music, Asian Underground, ambient music, drum and bass and electronica. In 2001 Karsh Kale was approached by ...

(with Ustad

Zakir Hussain Zakir Hussain ( ur, , link=no) is the name of: * Zakir Husain (politician), an Indian politician and former president of India * Zakir Hussain (actor), Bollywood actor * Zakir Hussain (field hockey) (1934–2019), Pakistani field hockey player * ...

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, ...

, Ustad Sultan Khan et al.), 6 solo studio records from 1999 (several other record appearances), the seminal 2005 album "

Breathing Under Water ''Breathing Under Water'' is an album by Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale released on 28 August 2007. Shankar and Kale expand beyond cultural and traditional borders of music with this collaboration. With the help of featured guests Ravi Shankar ...

" with Anoushka Shankar, scoring and production for the 2019

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

smash hit "

Gully Boy ''Gully Boy'' is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language musical drama film directed by Zoya Akhtar, and written by Akhtar and Reema Kagti. The film was produced by Ritesh Sidhwani, Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar under the banners of Tiger Baby Films and Excel ...

", curating 6 acclaimed songs for the Indian

Coke Studio Coke Studio may refer to: * ''Coke Studio'' (Pakistan), a Pakistani television series featuring live music performances. * ''Coke Studio'' (India), an Indian television series featuring live music performances. * ''Coke Studio Bangla'', a Banglade ...

in 2012, amongst many others. Kale is also popular for his eclectic collaborations with Sting, Ustad

, Ustad Sultan Khan, U2,

Norah Jones Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has won several awards for her music and as of 2012, has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. ''Billboard'' named her the ...

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

, and

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

to name a few.

Biography

Early life

Born as Utkarsh Kale on 1 November 1974 to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

speaking immigrants in

West Bromwich West Bromwich ( ) is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is north-west of Birmingham. West Bromwich is part of the area known as the Black Country, in terms of geography, ...

, UK, Kale was raised in Stony Brook, New York after his parents relocated in 1977. Kale took an interest in drums and eventually became a tabla player. His father introduced him to a broad range of music, which included traditional Indian music, classical,

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

, and even early hip-hop. From this broad range of influences, Kale, who was self-taught, developed his own style, which eventually led to his "electric tabla".

Tabla Beat Science

In 2000,

founded

, inviting Kale, along with

Talvin Singh Talvin Singh OBE (born 1970) is an English musician, producer, and composer. A tabla player, he is known for creating an innovative fusion of Indian classical music and drum and bass. Singh is generally considered involved with an electronica s ...

Trilok Gurtu Trilok Gurtu (born 30 October 1951) is an Indian percussionist and composer whose work has blended the music of India with jazz fusion and world music. He has worked with Terje Rypdal, Gary Moore, John McLaughlin, Jan Garbarek, Joe Zawinul, ...

and Sultan Khan. Together, the group released ''Tala Matrix'' that year. The album is considered to be one of the most influential Asian Fusion albums to date, and the group embarked on a tour, of which one of the shows was later released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

1999–2011

While a Music Production and Performance student at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, Kale began playing in bands and working as a

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

. In 1999, Kale began work on his first EP, ''Classical Science Fiction from India'' and began hosting bi-weekly "Futureproof" events, which consisted of DJ and electric tabla sets. These events attracted the attention of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

Six Degrees Records Six Degrees Records is an independent record label noted for its catalog of recordings from international musicians and vocalists. History In 1996, former Windham Hill employees Pat Berry and Bob Duskis founded Six Degrees Records with the in ...

. Soon after, Kale became the first Indo-American to be signed to a solo recording contract in the United States, a move which was followed by Kale's first full-length album, ''Realize'', in 2001. ''Realize'', often considered as a major milestone in what Kale called "Asian Massive", was followed with 2002's Asian Massive Tour, which also featured Midival Punditz and

Cheb i Sabbah Cheb i Sabbah"Jewish DJ Captivates Arab Ears"
''

also was featured in the album and in the major attraction of the album "Milan". Kale's third album, 2006's ''Broken English'', was predominantly set to

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

lyrics, a shift from his previous albums. His follow-up ''Breathing Under Water'', released in 2007, was the result of a two-year collaboration with

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in ...

instrumentalist

Anoushka Shankar Anoushka Shankar (born 9 June 1981) is a British-American sitar player, producer, film composer and activist. She was the youngest and first woman to receive a British House of Commons Shield; she has had 7 Grammy Awards nominations and was the ...

. In 2011, Kale released ''Cinema'', which is influenced by Kale's experiences in composing for

. He also won GIMA Awards best fusion album for the same, beating A.R. Rahman.

2012–2021

Kale made two appearances in the Indian cult classic television show

The Dewarists ''The Dewarists'' is a musical television series on MTV India. The series is part music documentary and part travelogue. The show casts musicians from various parts of the world, collaborating to create original music while travelling across In ...

. In the first one in Season 1 (2011), he produced a Tabla-Electronica track in his signature style, called "Sacred Science", with Baiju Dharmajan, and Njelarathu Harigovindan; and a folk-rock ballad in Season 2 (2012), called "The Minstrel's Tale", with his long time collaborator Papon, and UK-Based

Carl Barat Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of tel ...

the Libertines The Libertines are an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the songwriting partnership of Barât and Doherty, has also included John Hassall ...

. In 2012, Kale was invited to produce 6 songs for the second season of

MTV India MTV India is an Indian pay television channel specialising in music, reality and youth culture programming. It was launched in 1996 as the Indian version of MTV and is owned by Viacom 18, a joint venture operation between MTV International ow ...

's music incubation project,

Coke Studio @ MTV Coke Studio India, officially titled Coke Studio @ MTV is an Indian television programme, which features live studio-recorded music performances by various artists. Coke Studio combines myriad musical influences, from Hindustani classical, Hin ...

. This episode met both popular and critical acclaim, especially for Kale's take on "Kajar Bin Kaare", a classic from his

times, done as a tribute to Ustad Sultan Khan. Kale also hosted the Season 2 of MTV Soundtrippin', alongside

Nucleya Udyan Sagar, better known by his stage name Nucleya, is an Indian electronic music producer. Career In 1998 he co-founded Bandish Projekt with Mayur Narvekar and Mehirr Nath Choppra. In 2007, Udyan left Bandish Projekt after working with Ma ...

in 2013 for

. In January 2016, Kale released his fifth solo studio album, "Up" featuring collaborations from his group "Karsh Kale Collectiv". The album features guitarist Blackstratblues/Warren Mendonsa, Kale's long time collaborator flautist Pandit Ajay Prasanna, and vocalists Papon,

Benny Dayal Benny Dayal (born 13 May 1984) is an Indian playback singer. He is a prominent singer in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi and more languages films. He has sung more than 3500 songs in 19+ Indian languages. ...

, and

Monali Thakur Monali Thakur (born 3 November 1985) is an Indian singer and actress. She is the recipient of several awards including a National Film Award for the song "Moh Moh Ke Dhaage" from the film '' Dum Laga Ke Haisha'' (2015) and a Filmfare Award for ...

, amongst a host of other musicians. Following the release, Kale also did an "Up Live Tour" to promote the album in India across several concerts, featuring visual effects by The Wolves. Followed by Up, Kale appeared in Red Bull Studio Science in 2017 with a 20 minute talk about his song writing methods and his electric tabla, and performed a live version of "Up", and his own take on "Unkahi" with the delhi based musician duo

Shadow and Light ''Shadow and Light'' (French: ''Ombre et lumière'') is a 1951 French psychological drama film directed by Henri Calef and starring Simone Signoret, María Casares and Jean Marchat.Hayward p.244 The film's sets were designed by Daniel Guéret and ...

, originally composed by Shadow and Light. Kale covered "Mad about you" by Sting in 2017. 2019 saw the release of "Infinity" – a 6 track EP which is the result of a collaboration between Kale, and Sarod virtuosos

Amaan Ali Bangash Amaan Ali Khan ( IAST: ) (born 1977) is an Indian classical musician who plays the sarod. Khan is the son of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and often performs with his younger brother Ayaan Ali Khan, with whom he hosted the music talent show ''Sa Re Ga ...

, and Ayaan Ali Bangash. The EP features Delhi based neo-classical duo

, and Sarod legend Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan. In the same year, Kale also put out an ambient electronica EP called "Little Whale" with

Ankur Tewari Ankur may refer to: * ''Ankur'' (film), a 1974 Hindi film * Ankur (food) Sprouting is the natural process by which seeds or spores germinate and put out shoots, and already established plants produce new leaves or buds, or other structure ...

, and Gaurav Raina of the Midival Punditz and an accompanying music video. and a single, "Disappear", with vocalist Tarana Marwah / Komorebi. Kale was also featured in U2's Eternal Remixes album (2019) for his version of "In the name of love / Pride" dubbed the 100 voices mix. This song also features a music video, and re-penned lyrics that speak about the assassination of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. After 2020's single "Across the Ocean" and its remixes in 2021, Kale released his sixth solo studio album "Touch", released as two EPs, Touch: 1 and Touch: 2 in May and July 2021 respectively. Entirely conceived and produced in the pandemic, this album sees Kale favour electronic arrangements and only a few collaborations, namely vocalist

Malini Awasthi Malini Awasthi (born 11 February 1967) is an Indian folk singer. She sings in Bhojpuri, Awadhi and Hindi, She also presents Thumri and Kajri. The Government of India awarded her the civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2016. She is known for h ...

, guitarists

Warren Mendonsa Blackstratblues is a musical project of Warren Mendonsa, an Indian guitarist and composer based out of Auckland, New Zealand. Earlier Blackstratblues albums were solo efforts, and more recent releases have been group collaborations—all self-re ...

and Bhrigu Sahni, and flautist Pandit Ajay Prasanna. Kale described the Tabla to be the "spine" of all his tracks in the album. The track "Fist of Fury", is Kale's return to his signature Tabla-heavy electronica tracks, that he has dubbed "Liquid Tabla". A music video of the title track "Touch" was also released on YouTube in June 2021. Karsh Kale reworked four of the Beatles' songs for the compilation album, "Songs Inspired by the Film – The Beatles and India", released in October 2021. For these collaboration, Kale worked with

Farhan Akhtar Farhan Akhtar (born 9 January 1974) is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter, playback singer, producer, and television host who works in Hindi films. Born in Mumbai to screenwriters Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani, he grew up under the influe ...

Monica Dogra Monica Dogra is an American musician and actress. She has acted in six feature films, as well as released five studio albums with the band Shaa’ir and func. She is a member on the judging panel of India's first English music talent show, The St ...

, and more.

Other work

Kale has composed for crossover and Bollywood films including ''

Chutney Popcorn ''Chutney Popcorn'' is a 1999 comedy-drama film starring, directed and co-written by Nisha Ganatra. Ganatra plays a young lesbian Indian American woman called Reena. Jill Hennessy plays her girlfriend Lisa and Reena's mother and sister are play ...

'', ''

Indian Cowboy ''Indian Cowboy'' is a 2004 South Asian independent feature film that belongs to a growing list of independently produced films in North America by filmmakers of South Asian descent. Featuring a bevy of South Asian actors including Sheetal Sheth, t ...

'', ''

Ocean of Pearls ''Ocean of Pearls'' is a movie released in 2008. It is the first film directed by Sarab Singh Neelam, a Sikh gastroenterologist from Troy, Michigan. It was written by Neelam and Veerendra Prasad. Plot Dr. Amrit Singh, A young Sikh surgeon, moves ...

'', and '' Pyaar Impossible!''. His tracks have also been featured in shows such as

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

's ''

True Blood ''True Blood'' is an American fantasy horror drama television series produced and created by Alan Ball. It is based on ''The Southern Vampire Mysteries'', a series of novels by Charlaine Harris. A reboot is currently in development. The serie ...

'' and ''

Real Time with Bill Maher ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' is an American television talk show that airs weekly on HBO, hosted by comedian and political satirist Bill Maher. Much like his previous series ''Politically Incorrect'' on Comedy Central and later on ABC, ''Real ...

''. Two of his songs were included in as sample music in

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

. Kale's songwriting credits include songs with Sting and

, and has remixed songs by artists including

Paula Cole Paula Cole (born April 5, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter. After gaining attention for her performances as a vocalist on Peter Gabriel's 1993–1994 Secret World Tour, she released her first album, ''Harbinger (Paula Cole album), Harbing ...

, and

The Cure The Cure are an English Rock music, rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith (musician), Robert Smith has re ...

. Kale also worked with Midival Punditz on a rescoring of Bruce Lee's ''

Enter the Dragon ''Enter the Dragon'' ( zh, t=龍爭虎鬥) is a 1973 martial arts film directed by Robert Clouse and written by Michael Allin. The film stars Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim Kelly. It was Lee's final completed film appearance before his death o ...

''. In 2012, Kale was one of a group of music producers selected to take part in

's music incubation project:

for its second season. Working with Indian artists including Warren Mendonsa,

, Apeksha Dandekar and more, he produced some of the series most innovative and well received tracks.

Discography

Albums

Albums * ''Realize'' (2001) * ''Liberation'' (2003) * ''Broken English'' (2006) * ''

'' (with

) (2007) *
Cinema
' (2010) *
UP
' (2016) * ''Touch'' (Released as 2 EPs, Touch : 1 and Touch : 2) (2021) Remix Albums * ''Redesign: Realize Remixed'' (2002) Compilation Albums * 3 Tracks in ''Asian Massive'' (2002) * 3 Tracks in ''Samaya: A Benefit Album for Cheb I Sabbah'' (2012) * 4 Tracks in ''Songs Inspired by the Film The Beatles and India'' (2021)

With Tabla Beat Science

* ''Tala Matrix'' (2000) * ''Live at Stern Grove'' Palm Pictures (2003) * ''Talaman Soundclash, Live at the Filmore'' (2004)

EPs

* ''Bright Like This'' (1999) * ''Classical Science Fiction from India'' (2000) * ''Play'' (1999) * ''Pause'' (1999) * ''Back Seat Lavni'' (1999) * ''Distance Remixes'' (2000) * ''Manifest Remixes EP'' (2007) * ''Beautiful Remixes EP'' (2007) * ''Coke Studio @ MTV Season 2'' (2012) * ''Funkcronomic'' (2016) (with

and

Bernie Worrell George Bernard Worrell, Jr. (April 19, 1944 – June 24, 2016) was an American keyboardist and record producer best known as a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic and for his work with Talking Heads. He is a member of the Rock and Rol ...

) * ''Little Whale'' (2019) (with Ankur Tewari, and Gaurav Raina of Midival Punditz) * ''Infinity'' (2019) (with

and Ayaan Ali Bangash) * ''Touch : 1'' (2021) * ''Touch : 2'' (2021) With Dave Douglas *'' Freak In'' (RCA, 2003)

Films

* ''

Karthik Calling Karthik ''Karthik Calling Karthik'' is a 2010 Indian psychological thriller film, written and directed by Vijay Lalwani and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under the banner of Excel Entertainment. The film stars Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Pa ...

'' (2010) * ''

'' (2019) * '' Choked'' (2020)

Singles

* "Distance" (2001) * "Liberation Remixes" (2003) * "Manifest (Kaushik Ambient Mix)" (2006) * "Manifest Remixes" (2006) * "Beautiful Remixes" (2007) * "Sacred Science" (2011) With

Season 1, feat.

Baiju Dharmajan Baiju Dharmajan (born 7 March 1968) is an Indian guitarist, music composer, producer and guitar tutor based out of Kochi, Kerala. A celebrated musician in his own country, Baiju had an extended stint during the 2000s as the lead guitarist of the ...

and Njeralathu Harigovindan * "A Minstrel's Tale" (2012) With

Season 2, feat. Papon and

* "We All Fall" (2014) * "Up" (2015) * "Disappear" (2019) * "Across the Ocean" (2020) * "Across the Ocean Remixes" (2021) * "Lovers Remixes" (2021)

References

External links

Official website
*
Karsh Kale on SoundCloud

Karsh Kale performing on NYC Radio LIVE!
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kale, Karsh 1974 births Living people British people of Indian descent British multi-instrumentalists British record producers British male composers British emigrants to the United States British people of Marathi descent Tabla players 21st-century drummers 21st-century British male musicians Six Degrees Records artists Manhattan Records artists New York University alumni People from Stony Brook, New York Musicians from New York (state)