Kandisa is the second studio album released by Indian fusion band Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean (band)

Indian Ocean are an Indian rock band formed in New Delhi in 1990. They are considered to be the pioneers of fusion rock genre in India. Susmit Sen, Asheem Chakravarty, Rahul Ram and Amit Kilam formed the most stable and successful line-up in the band's timeline. This line-up lasted till Asheem's...

 in march 2000. It went on to become one of the best-loved albums produced in India. Kandisa acquired cult status and propelled Indian Ocean into the status of one of India’s most original and creative bands. The band left Indian shores for the first time ever in August 2001. They played their first concert abroad in London, and then went on to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where they played 18 concerts in 14 days, and were nominated the Pick of the Fringe. They returned to the Fringe in 2002 and 2003. In 2002, the band played 37 concerts abroad across four continents: New Zealand, USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and Indonesia. In 2003 they toured the UK twice, as well as Australia, Germany, Singapore, and Réunion. In addition, they continued to play all over India.

Production

The band went on the road – playing gigs in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Maharashtra. The break though into the mainstream came some time in late 1998 when Times Music (a division of Times of India) signed up the band. A few months later, Indian Ocean were invited to play at the Millennium celebrations at Khajuraho. K. R. Narayanan, then President of India, was one of the first, to hear the special composition, which is one of the high points of their album, Kandisa.

The album was recorded at Western Outdoors, one of India’s premier studios, in Mumbai. Members of Indian Ocean call it as their first “proper” studio recording. They were given two weeks for recording and 5 days for the mix, and actually had a producer.

The band also pays gratitude to Gurpreet, Orijit and the Sidhus and the wonderful ambiance of 16/330 Khajoor Road, for the album's production

Track listing

Lyrics: Sanjeev Sharma for Khajuraho, Kaun and Kya Maloom. Kandisa and Ma Rewa are traditional. Hille le is based on Gorakh Pande’s words. Kashmiri

Kashmiri language

Kashmiri is a language from the Dardic sub-group and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,554,496 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Census of 2001. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are émigrés from the Kashmir...

 lyrics in Kaun by Indira Kilam.

1. "Kya Maloom"
2. "Ma Rewa"
3. "Leaving Home"
4. "Hille Re Jhakjor"
5. "Khajuraho (song)"
6. "Kaun (song)"
7. "Kandisa"

Languages

The album's title, and the song Kandisa

Kandisa

Kandisa is an ancient prayer in Aramaic. The literal translation of this word may be Holy/ Holy Praise / Divine Praise. This prayer is chanted even to this day in the Syriac Orthodox Church of the Syrian Malabar Nasrani people.-Prayer:...

 is in Aramaic. Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

is widely used throughout the album with Kashmiri lyrics in the song Kaun, written by drummer Amit Kilam's mother.