MUMBAI: After churning out chartbusters for several bollywood movies, versatile composer Pankaj Awasthi is all set to release his second album ‘Somrass’ on Times Music.

The album comprises of 12 tracks composed and produced by Awasthi and penned by poets like Neeraj Rajawat, M K Mishra, Surendra Chaturvedi and Avanish Gautam. The album  features poems infused with various genres of music like ghazals and western music.

Speaking about the album with Radioandmusic.com, Awasthi said, “The album is a compilation of my work that I have done over a period of three years from 2009-2012. Most of the tracks are actual poems which I have read and experimented with. They cut across all genres and I can term them as ‘contemporary lyrical Indian Electronica’.”

‘Somrass’ will be widely distributed across physical and digital platforms and will also be promoted through concerts across the country. The album will hit the markets next week while the tracks are already available for listeners on Raaga and SoundCloud. Commencing from August, the composer-singer will tour across cities like Bangalore, Pune, Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Chandigarh amongst others performing live at venues like Hard Rock Café, Blue Frog and more. Awasthi’s first concert is scheduled to be held on 1 August at Blue Frog Mumbai.

“A lot of promotional concerts have been planned. When I produced the album, I played the instruments myself but in the live performances I will be accompanied by a number of musicians. We will be aiming to do many improvisations on the tracks during our performances,” he revealed.

The talented artiste has composed music for various bollywood films like ‘New York’, ‘Anwar’, ‘Tera Kya Hoga Johnny’ and ‘Patang’. He had released his debut album ‘Nine’ in 2005. His second independent album has been released after a hiatus of seven years as the singer believes that bollywood music is the dominating factor in India. He commented, “In India, film music is everything. And in such a market, promoting and releasing experimental music is very different. The kind of music that independent artistes compose is very niche. This being my first album with Times Music, I am hoping to see it achieve success.”

Apart from the album, Awasthi is also currently composing for a bollywood film titled ‘You Are Here’ by Cyrus Khambatta.