Karsh Kale is a music director, composer and producer of Indian origin who was born in London, but grew up in New York.
Karsh was born on November 01, 1974 to Dr. Pratap and Sheela Kale at Halem Hospital in West Bromwich in England. His family moved to America three years later where his father introduced him to Western and Indian classical music.
Eventually, he started playing the drums but later, developed a passion for playing the tabla and performed in a number of local bands and gigs. In 1996, he graduated from New York University in Music Performance and Production.
He founded the funk fusion jam band called “Bell Cafe” in 1994 along with Gary Dourdan, Gbatokai Dakina Jr, Illinton and Flemming Rothhaus. He also performed and recorded with the likes of DJ Spooky, Bedowi, DJ Logic and Ming and FS. He worked as a drummer for the band “32 Tribes” for two years. He also started collaborating with artists like Vishal Vaid and Nishant Khan and in 1996, he formed the band “Bom Shankar” with Ajay Naidu, Shahid Siddiqui, Vishal Vaid, DJ Ming and Kirk Douglas and started composing his own brand of “Indo-Electro Fusion” music. After the band Bom Shankar separated in 1998, he and Jojo Meyer formed “Futureproof” – a monthly event to showcase “live electronic inspired music”. Later, they joined DJ Spooky and the Universal Robot Band on tour of the United States and was noticed by the San Francisco music label, Six Degrees Records.
In 2006, he produced the album “Tala Matrix” working along with Zakir Hussain, Talvin Singh, Trilok Gurtu and Sultan Khan. “Realize”, released in 2001 was his first international album which highlighted his style of electro fusion. 2003 saw the release of “Liberation” and in 2005, he released “Broken English”. In 2007, he released “Breathing under Water” in collaboration with Anoushka Shankar. “Hello Hello” and “Cinema” are his other releases. He debuted in films in 1999 in “Chutney Popcorn” Some of the other films featuring his works are “Ashes” and “Karthik calling Karthik” in 2010 and “Dum Maaro Dum” in 2011. He has also remixed for a number of artists like Yoko Ono, Anoushka Shankar, Sting, DJ Spooky, Jay Z, among others.
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