UNIVERSAL MUSIC LAUNCHES THE NEW STUDIO ALBUM FROM LESLE LEWIS TITLED “TANHA SA HOON”
SEEN AT THE BLUE FROG EVENT, WHERE LESLE PERFORMED `LIVE’ MUSIC FROM HIS NEW ALBUM, WERE SHAAN, SALIM-SULAIMAN, SHAMIR TANDON, SHIBANI KASHYAP, TALAT AZIZ, RABBI SHERGILL AMONGST OTHERS
Universal Music launches one of India’s first composers to have introduced the Indian audiences to rock and pop music – Lesle Lewis for his brand new studio album ‘Tanha Sa Hoon’. The singer-composer is back with a Hindi album after almost a decade. The album was launched today at a packed house at Blue Frog, Mumbai. Lesle enthralled the audiences with a `live’ performance of his new songs mixed with some of his classics. Enjoying the music at the event was Shaan with wife Radhika, Salim-Sulaiman, Karan Oberoi, Daboo Malik, Shamir Tandon, Talat Aziz, Rabbi Shergill, Shibani Kashyap amongst others.
The album `Tanha Sa Hoon’ has a wonderful and soothing timelessness of spirit and promises to give the audiences a taste of varied music flavors and moods. The title track “Tanha Sa Hoon” is introspective, melodic & graceful, but not without Lesle’s signature edginess. The next track “Oh Jaana – Sha Na Na” has a classic vintage sound reminiscent of the golden age of Bollywood, and then Lesle shifts gear and infuses some ‘masti’ into the album with the song “Main Jadoo”. The vibrant, energetic beats of this song give way to one of the most eclectic songs on the album, “Aaja Tu Aaja”, which has been waiting in the wings since 1986. The haunting sound gains inspiration from the Bossanova genre in Latin music and captures a new essence of romance. “Saawariya” is a memorable tune that has Lesle matching steps with Suchismita, who sings effortlessly in the classic Thumri style, and the album wraps up with “Tere Bina”, an easy R&B melody perked up with interesting Jazz extensions and a Bamboo Flute for an unusual twist.
Says Leslie Lewis, “I am very happy to be going back to my roots and have enjoyed singing and performing my own compositions after a long time. I hope everyone loves listening to this album as much as I have loved creating it.”
As a child, Leslie was greatly influenced by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton and with further working on his musical capabilities bagged the opportunity of recording with renowned music directors such as Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal, R. D. Burman, Viju Shah, Vanraj Bhatia, Khayam, Anu Malik and Louis Banks. The singer-composer had teamed up with Hariharan to form the industry’s most inimitable band ‘The Colonial Cousins’. He has also performed for all the major Musicals including Joseph & The Amazing, Technicolour Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, The Wizard of Oz, Bottoms Upgrease to name a few and produced most of India’s pop artists albums like Suneeta Rao, Asha Bhosle, Alisha amongst others.
Said Devraj Sanyal, Managing Director, Universal Music, India & SAARC, “Lesle Lewis is a musician who’s worn many hats…composer, producer, singer, mentor. Now a new hat adorns this multifaceted talent, that of a songwriter, composer & singer. Probably the most gratifying avatar for Lesle as he rolls out his new solo album ‘Tanha Sa Hoon’ on Universal Music. Songs like “Janne Na Kyu”, “Oh Jaana” & “Sawariya” breathe fresh life in the world of non-film music & are meant for age groups from the teens to the much older. The fact that his music is relevant to so many age groups shows his enormous abilities as a music maker extraordinaire.”
For 30 years Lesle has been reinventing the sound of popular music in the country. To begin with he experimented with mixing Western sounds and Hindi lyrics which turned out to be HINDI POP music. He then went on to mixing dance music with old Bollywood songs, creating the REMIX genre and fused Indian Classical and Western music that lead to FUSION music. In addition, the immensely popular COKE STUDIO emerged, when he mixed multiple genres of Indian Folk with Contemporary music.
The album `Tanha Sa Hoon’ is available on both physical and digital formats, exclusively on Universal Music
