MUMBAI: Carnatic and Hindustani classical percussionist Vivek Rajagopalan released his latest music video, 'Munyati' featuring Georges Nehme on 14 January, in association with digital video entertainment company Culture Machine. The music video features contemporary and classical Indian dance forms choreographed by Joanna Joglekar, a highly regarded ballet and bharatnatyam dancer.

'Munyati' is an Indo-Arabic collaboration, with music by Rajagopalan and featuring vocals by Georges Nehme from Lebanon. The vocals are in Arabic, and are set to Carnatic and Hindustani classical music coupled with strong Oriental (Middle Eastern) influences. 'Munyati' which means 'you, whom I yearn for' is an excerpt from a 'Muwashshah', an Arabic form of poetic composition and a secular music genre. For the track, Rajagopalan has used folk instruments of Maharashtra like 'chenda/tasha' to give the song an authentic Indian feel. To add to the beat, he has used the carnatic percussion instrument 'mridangam' and vocal instrument 'bolis'.

When asked what attracted him to incorporate traditional Oriental sounds with Hindustani classical sounds, Rajagopalan said, "In western music, you have a stable approach which includes staccato and legato, but Hindustani has a very distinct approach to singing; and I found that evident in Oriental music also." The single had been in development since 2013. Asked why the release took so long, he replied, "Unfortunately, we live in an era where people no longer listen to music, they watch music videos. Producing the video and finding like-minded people who can help me make the music video, took time."

The track features Shovon Mukherjee on bass, Finix Ramdas on violin and Rajagopalan on percussions. The music video is directed by Sharat Chandra Parse. Rajagopalan added, "The people involved have not charged a single penny and have it done only for artistic purposes. They all have been very supportive." The track was mixed by Punit Samtani in Rajagopalan's own recording studio, 'Half Step Audio'. The studio has recognisable independent music acts coming in to record, such as Bandish Project.

Rajagopalan will release his next single in March called 'Theyya', which will focus on the traditional folk-song of the mother goddess. The single features vocals by famous Malayalam singer Reshmi Sathish.