MUMBAI: Virtuoso Santoor player Rahul Sharma, known for his tasteful collaborative instrumental work with international artist comes home to explore the music and sounds of India in his upcoming album.

His new offering ‘Deep India’ to release on 5 January on Sony Music has Sharma  collaborating  with Eric Mouquet of French electronic musical group Deep Forest. The album  fuses the earthy folk rhythms of India with Mouquet’s electronic sound.

Speaking with Radioandmusic.com (RnM) Sharma said that there will be eight tracks on the album and a promotional tour would follow.

“I’ve earlier worked with various international artists. My previous album ‘Namaste India’ was with Grammy winner saxophonist Kenny G.  Earlier I had two albums with the highest selling pianist Richard Clayderman. Working with Eric has been a pleasure and an honour because I really love the music Deep Forest makes. Deep Forest has earlier worked on Deep Brazil and Deep China. Now Deep India will feature eight new compositions comprising of folk (music) from various states of India . I have singers and instrumentalists from Punjab, Kerala, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Medikeri, Coorg and Maharashtra along with my santoor. Deep Forest have added their trademark ethnic electronica arrangement n sound design to Deep India.”

What differentiates Deep India from Sharma’s earlier works is the inclusion of vocals from the artists. "Listeners can expect to hear rare Indian folk singers and instrumentalists along with my santoor and Deep Forests ethnic electronic pulse on this album Deep India." he said.

Sharma and Deep Forest will perform at the Sawai Gandharva festival, Pune on 11 Dec followed by Medikiri, Coorg on 15 Dec to promote the album with more dates being considered.

“I’ve composed for Bollywood movies, play classical concerts around the world, fusion collaborations and now santoor- Folk- Electronica. Few artists can manage genuine collaborations. These are eight new tracks and that’s the way it should be. Digital market is great and we are happy to sell digitally as well as physical,” he added.