MUMBAI: Mauj Maharaja, the project that started by cousins Aalok Padhye and Tanmay Bhattacherjee back in 2015, released its debut album, 'Phir Se' on 20 March 2017.

Mauj Maharaja’s music blends from Afro-Cuban groove to Jazz harmony, along with melodies of 60’s and 70’s Hindi film music. There are nine songs and nine in-studio videos in the album, which will release on the band’s YouTube channel soon. ‘Phir Se’ features Aalok Padhye on percussion, Tanmay Bhattacherjee on bass, Apurv Isaac aka Lala on electric guitar, Nirmit Shah on piano and keyboards, Jehangir Jehangir on drums and Vishrut Sinha on vocals.

While talking about it, Tanmay who plays the bass and contributes while structuring a song shared, “After completing the course from Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, me and Aalok started exploring. Both of us felt that our music is very similar to South American music and rhythm. And for this album, it worked.”

The duo also writes and produces original Hindi pop music. The idea of creating a unique joint venture with ‘Phir Se’ emerged after they met Vishrut Sinha in 2016. Sinha a classically trained singer and lyricist, who contrasted their musical sensibilities due to his background in Hindi film music from the ‘60s and ‘70s led to the birth of this extraordinary musical creation.

"It was difficult initially as we were blending so many sounds. However, our music is pop, primarily. So we couldn’t go too jazzy or too reggae. Our intention was to pull out the essence of all the sounds. We recorded the songs at Cotton Press Studio in just three days as we didn’t want to hold-up our first significant move,” added Tanmay.

Listen to this track from the album:

The album 'Phir Se' is available on all digital platforms. In addition, Mauj Maharaja will launch the album at Hard Rock Cafe, Andheri on the 23 March 2017.