Particle.news

Purbayan Chatterjee and Mark Lettieri Release Album 'Feathered Creatures'

The collaboration reframes Indian raga through jazz‑funk, rock and electronic production to foreground complex non‑Western rhythmic cycles and a two‑part musical tribute to Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Overview

  • The nine‑track album was released via GroundUP Records and went live on Friday, with streams and music videos available on major platforms.
  • The partnership began after Snarky Puppy founder Michael League introduced Chatterjee to Lettieri during Chatterjee’s guest appearances with the band, and the project grew from studio experiments into a full record.
  • Producer and arranger Nakul Chugh shaped the album’s sound and the record features guest contributions such as sarod player Pratik Srivastava on the track “Sarod 7s.”
  • Musically the record fuses classical raga frameworks with jazz‑funk, rock and electronic textures, emphasizing asymmetric rhythmic cycles; the single “Hibiscus” uses an 11‑beat lehra rooted in Raga Yaman as a tribute to Ustad Zakir Hussain.
  • Ambitious visuals accompany the music, moving from live‑action Indian mysticism to anime‑style instrument face‑offs, signaling an effort to present Indian classical tradition within a modern, global aesthetic that could broaden audiences for experimental cross‑genre work.