Beijing Olympics, 2008 is fast approaching. India can take pride that traditional Indian music will make its presence felt at the largest sporting event to be held in Beijing in August.
Of the 12 tracks chosen for the Games, three are from the authentic Indian music genre, from the album Asia Today, composed by Chennaiite Lekha Ratnakumar, an ad film maker and music composer. His album is part of the production music library owned by ‘Sonoton Creative Solutions’ a Germany based company, which boasts of over 70,000 pre-recorded soundtracks in all kinds of genre among its collection.
Sonoton is providing the background score for the various live sports events to be held at Beijing.
‘It is one of the most challenging assignments I have ever had. Composing music is totally a different proposition from what we do for films’ said an excited Ratnakumar, whose studio in Chennai is bustling with young musical talent busy preparing for the big event.
‘Gymnastic events are more music-oriented and gymnasts always practice with background scores to sync their body movements with the music.I am trying to mix and match certain portions from Asia Today and add newer tones depending on the requirement’ he added.
Jogging at Marina and Calcutta Rush are two tracks being used at the warm-up sessions at the Olympics.
The Asia Today album scored by Ramakumar has ace composer Mani Sharma playing the keyboard. Sudhakar from Ilayaraja’s troupe playing the flute and janardhan the sitar.