Artist: Naveen Kumar

Label: Sony Music 

Rating: 4/5 

I have had the opportunity of hearing Naveen Kumar at one of his recording sessions, and the way this self taught musician plays – it can drop your jaws – quite literally. But he is not all about impressing with his virtuosity. The notes that come out of his big bag of flutes that he travels with are truly soulful. And they have the power to send you in a meditative state without much effort.

The album opens with Heart Flute - a nerve soothing track. The album's liner notes mention that this was the song which Naveen composed after his father passed away, and that the tune was a way to communicate with God – so there you go – listen to the brilliant conversation 

In the song Indo fusion, Naveen presents a beautiful combo of Veena and Flute - the song is a mix bag of genres and while listening to it, you'll never know where it is going - from classical, to something that sounds like a theme track, to folk, to Hindustani classical, to even blues!! 

The album features nine tracks, and two bonus tracks, most of them are up-tempo 

Kumar has collaborated with a number of renowned musicians like Reeg Deb, Louiz Banks, Selvaganesh, Matt Cooker, Keith Peters, Levon Ichkhanian, Rajesh Vaidya, Sanjay Divecha, Dennis Chambers and Christy Samuel, which of course gives us one more reason to give this a hear. The only thing is, on some songs, solos of these fabulous musicians work for the song, while for others it comes in the way of Naveen's flute playing.

Other songs like Trance Flute, Belly Flute, Fantasy Flute only amplify his virtuosity – in fact,  don't be surprised if Naveen's playing make your hair stand.

In all, Cafe Fluid is a brilliant album as expected from this genius, and of course, it quenches the thirst for some real non-film music!

Send in your comments to: chirag.sutar@indiantelevision.co.in