Bengaluru-based Carnatic prog band Agam. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Carnatic progressive rock band Agam played two sold-out auditorium shows on consecutive nights last weekend in Bengaluru, in different parts of the city.
Though these performances were part of Music for Meals, a fundraiser for the Akshaya Patra Foundation, long queues of fans and packed auditoriums have long been a hallmark of Agam’s journey—ever since their days as a seven-piece band squeezing onto smaller club stages. Today, they’re backed by full-scale production, complete with immersive lighting, visuals, and a catalogue spanning three albums—riffs, Carnatic vocals, and all.
Across two-hour sets, Agam introduced audiences to their new album Arrival of the Ethereal, performing four new songs alongside fan favorites. True to their indulgent prog style, they blended traditional roots with influences from American prog titans like Dream Theater, giving even classical purists a taste of their layered sound.
Their grandiose lead single, “The Silence That Remains,” draws from the Carnatic composition “Mokshamu Galada,” while another standout moment came with “Flight To The Summer Sky,” introduced as a yet-unreleased collaboration with Grammy-winner Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. The track—a dynamic reinterpretation of a Saint Thyagaraja piece and a tribute to goddess Saraswati—moves through bursts of fanfare, keys, and Carnatic jazz.
The clear standout among the new tracks from Arrival of the Ethereal is “Walk of the Bride,” where Agam reimagines a traditional Tamil wedding song with exuberant rhythms that nod to modern prog acts like Plini. Meanwhile, the sprawling title track—featuring the Czech National Symphony Orchestra—is what vocalist Harish Sivaramakrishnan calls “the most ambitious song we’ve made.” Their take on a composition by 18th and 19th-century Carnatic composer Syama Sastri is technically complex, yet it remains rooted in both Carnatic tradition and progressive rock sensibilities.
Sivaramakrishnan likened performing the new songs live to “taking a practical exam” on stage. Reflecting on Agam’s 18-year journey ahead of the shows, he noted how the band now has the support of icons like A.R. Rahman and Hariharan. Both artists publicly backed Agam during the launch of “The Silence That Remains,” with Rahman recalling how he judged the band during their victorious run on the Tamil music reality show Ooh La La La in 2007. In a video message, Rahman said, “Very few bands have a belief in an identity, and that too from India. I find Agam one of those—a very strong identity […] They make their sound as an experience.”
Arrival of the Ethereal follows A Dream to Remember, which was released track by track between 2017 and 2019. The new album is also rolling out gradually, with four songs slated for release in 2025 and another four in the first half of 2026. Sivaramakrishnan describes it as a project eight years in the making—a “fulfilling, long and arduous journey” that brings them closest to fully realizing their Carnatic prog vision.
He hopes the songs will stand as a formative part of their legacy, much like their hit songs “Rangapura Vihara” and “Mist of Capricorn,” plus their 2012 debut album, The Inner Self Awakens. “It is very close to what we want to be remembered [for] once we become really old, when we stop being an active band, maybe a decade or more later. We just want this to be the way our music is truly remembered,” the vocalist says.
In the years making their new album, Agam feel that they—like some of the “most iconic prog acts in the world”—are still exploring the nuances of prog. “It’s not for the faint-hearted,” Sivaramakrishnan say with a laugh. Especially during the lockdown periods of the pandemic, the band heard a lot more music that humbled them. “It gives you terrific humility when you actually hear what else is out there. So this is a culmination of that,” he says.
Joined by guitarist Praveen Kumar, bassist Aditya Kasyap, percussionist Sivakumar Nagarajan, keyboardist Swaminathan Seetharaman and drummer Yadhunandan Nagaraj, Agam have reportedly worked with over 300 artists for Arrival of the Ethereal, a massive step up from the tally of 82 on A Dream to Remember. In true prog-fusion manner, all songs are “big scale” as Sivaramakrishnan calls them, ranging from eight to 10 minutes in runtime. “We are in the Insta Reel generation right now, where tracks are no longer than 45 seconds, but we have stuck to what we want to create,” the vocalist adds.
Thematically, it’s a “storytelling album,” which is a first for Agam. The vocalist explains, “Each chapter will depict one dominant feeling that humans go through in their lives. In The Silence That Remains, the main feeling that is captured is that of vulnerability, that of the beginning of the end, and purpose. It starts from questioning the purpose [of life] to going through a journey of purpose. The album is cyclic.”
With these initial shows done, Agam plan to mount a larger production for their upcoming shows, which will include an orchestra and vocal choir seen in the videos from Arrival of the Ethereal. “Plus, we are doing the U.S., the U.K., and Australia this year,” the vocalist adds.
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