A drum set is not usually found on Indian-inspired music stages, but that sort of consideration has never worried drummer Thomas Friggens.
So when friend and guitarist Justin Clarke (of Bret McKenzie’s house band) showed him some music by Shakti, a grammy winning fusion band, Friggens was instantly keen to give it a go.
"I was really interested in it and hadn’t heard it before."
With Clarke, violinist Tristan Carter (Atlas Ensemble) and a tabla player (who has since moved to Australia) they formed Shades of Shakti, a group blending Indian, classical and jazz music, back in 2017, and put on some concerts at the Wellington Jazz Festival.
"It's just really joyous music and it's really exciting and there's a lot of interesting rhythmic material for me, as I'm a drummer, but also lots of rhythmic material for lots of the instruments. It was just the excitement of the music, harmonically as well."
They started off playing some of the music from Shakti and have since included music from Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin as well as some compositions by Clarke.
"We're just sort of finding new ways to arrange and present the music, really, which is a really exciting opportunity."
But as the drums are not usually featured in this sort of ensemble — Shakti has had a mix of a guitarist, tabla player, violinist, mandolin and ghatam players — Friggens, who started out playing in rock bands, has had to learn how to fit in tonally and has spent time learning some of the foundational concepts of Indian music.
"So that I can complement the rest of the band rather than dominate them sonically. So that's been an interesting one. But rhythmically, from more of the Indian perspective, there's a lot of polyrhythmic aspects to their compositional writing and the way that they even improvise."
Improvising is not new for Friggens, who studied jazz music.
"There's small little phrases which finish off improvisations, which usually come out as a polyrhythmic thing. And it's sort of like a little signature way to finish something and really build some excitement in the music."
Friggens’ interest in experimenting with music has developed since he joined the Strike Percussion Ensemble after graduating. The group is known for its energetic and choreographed percussion performances as well as its education work in schools.
Through that, he was introduced to more diverse music, such as that from the Cook Islands and gamelan from Indonesia.
Around the same time, he also joined a group that was playing Balkan music, the music of Southeast Europe, Greece and Macedonia and Serbia. It was through these performances that he met Clarke and Carter.
"It's sort of a shared love of the sound of what we in the West call the East. And being interested in that, because there's a lot of different approaches to music from a folk music level, as much as a classical music level. Things that are a little bit unusual by our standards, but are very normal by theirs."
Sustaining a career as a full-time drummer in New Zealand means taking up a wide range of opportunities, including teaching. Friggens has performed with a variety of bands including Makeshift Parachutes, Snakebone and Sheets.
"So, sometimes I do lots and lots of concerts playing this kind of music that we're playing. That's what has been lined up. But often I get to play some pop music, or I play some rock and roll, or get to do all sorts of things."
Playing in different venues on this tour will allow the band, which includes tabla player Basant Madhur (from the Indian music school, Sargam School of Music in Auckland), to really develop their music, Friggens says.
"We can have really acoustic situations, or really high level of production situations. We can make it translate, which is a really fun aspect of it. And the fact that it kind of connects with different communities."
The gigs
• Shades of Shakti play the Clarkson Studio, Regent Theatre, Dunedin on November 19 and Eastern Southland Art Gallery on November 18.
