Every monsoon in Nepal Mandal, farmers invoke supernatural spirits through tantric rituals to gain the strength needed for the planting season. Once the work ends, these spirits must be sent away. Kanta dAb dAb capture this moment of release in “Gathāmuga”, their new video which dropped on 4 December. The Kathmandu trio – drummer Nikhil Tuladhar, bassist Rizu Tuladhar and sitarist Sunit Kansakar – recorded the performance live at Moksh during the launch of their second album Mānusaka in 2023, shaping it through Nepali classical traditions set against jazz, rock and Western harmonic structures.
Gathāmuga arrives each year on the fourth day of the waning moon in Shrawan (August/September) across Nepal Mandal. The festival involves creating and burning demon effigies to cleanse negative energies after the harvest: what the band call “a psychological cleansing” where “Kathmandu cleanses the old, casts out demons, and welcomes fresh beginnings.” It marks a turning point shaped by agricultural urgency, communal belief and the closing of a cycle that will begin again next year.
The three musicians formed Kanta dAb dAb officially in 2014, though they’d played together in Thamel’s live circuits since the late 1990s. They named the group after a local mystical figure who carried a damaru drum and enchanted their Newari neighbourhood. Nikhil Tuladhar has performed internationally with bands including Nepathya, Trikaal and Rock Sitar, earning Nepal’s nationwide best drummer award three consecutive years. Rizu Tuladhar heads the western band ensemble department at Nepal Music Centre and teaches ethnomusicology at Kathmandu University. Sunit Kansakar works as both musician and sound engineer at Nepal Music Centre.
Their approach layers sitar melodies over bass and drum foundations, creating soulful fusion grooves which are distinctly contemporary with Nepali sound. Previous releases include their self-titled debut Kanta dAb dAb (2022) and Mānusaka (2023).
In 2017, they established Echoes in the Valley, Nepal’s only free international festival celebrating folk, traditional and indigenous music from Nepal and beyond. The initiative operates year-round, supporting Nepali musicians through strengthening musical culture, education and resources rather than limiting itself to a single annual event.
Listen and stream the track through THIS LINK