Indian Ocean (band)

Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean at the Indo German Urban Mela
Background information
Origin	Delhi, India
Genres	Jazz fusion, folk
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Indian Ocean, left to right: Tuheen Chakravarty, Himanshu Joshi, Sushmit Sen, Rahul Ram, Amit Kilam
Website	www.indianoceanmusic.com
Members	Nikhil Rao Amit Kilam Rahul Ram Himanshu Joshi Tuheen Chakraborty
Past members	Susmit Sen Asheem Chakravarty Indrajit Dutta Shaleen Sharma Anirban Roy R C Joshi Sawan Dutta

Indian Ocean is an Indian rock band formed in New Delhi in 1990, who are widely recognized as the pioneers of the fusion rock genre in India. Susmit Sen, Asheem Chakravarty, Rahul Ram and Amit Kilam were band members till Chakravarty's death on 25 December 2009, after which Tuheen Chakravorty and Himanshu Joshi were officially inducted into the band as replacements. After the departure of Susmit Sen in 2013, Rahul Ram is the only founding member who appeared on the band's debut album Indian Ocean. Sanjeev Sharma [1] has collaborated with them as lyricist on many Albums.

The musical style of the band can be at best classified as jazz fusion and fusion music. It is an experimental genre, fusing raga (traditional Indian tunes) with rock music, guitars and drums, sometimes using Indian folk songs. It has also been described by some music critics as "Indo-rock fusion with jazz-spiced rhythms that integrates shlokas, sufism, environmentalism, mythology and revolution".

Since 2010, the band has moved against the lines of record labels. They released their latest album 16/330 Khajoor Road online for free. The main reason for this move was the frustration over negotiating contracts with record companies and fighting over copyright issues. They have turned to concerts and sponsorships for generating revenue rather than playing in the hands of record labels. For a brief amount of time they had the sponsorship of Johnnie Walker. They are also a part of the world's first Music Personalisation Initiative named DRP as one of the five Featured Artists. In its 2014 listing of "25 Greatest Indian Rock Songs of the last 25 Years", "Rolling Stone India" featured two songs, Ma Rewa and Kandisa from the album, Kandisa (2000).