Barson Huey, the debut album from Sanjo and Chandrani launched in New Delhi recently, represents an encouraging trend being witnessed on the Indian music scene. Like the albums put out by Rabbi and Indian Ocean, Barson Huey is an intensely acoustic album, rich with earthy instrumentation created using six and twelve string wood guitars. The songs themselves are refreshingly different with memorable tunes and deep insightful lyrics. What is thankfully missing is the standard bundle of tin-can techno rhythms, computer generated loops and other synthesizer-based sounds that characterise much of pop music these days.

The ten tracks on Barson Huey offer a refreshing potpourri of brilliant song-writing, excellent melodies, complex arrangements and intricate instrumentation, rounded off with great vocals and backing vocals. Even though the album will inevitably be classified under the Indipop category, a more accurate description of the music would be fusion. This element of fusion comes from the blend of inherently Hindi songs with diverse Western influences ranging from pop, rock and country to reggae, flamenco and salsa.

The artistes behind the album are Sanjo and Chandrani. Sanjo is, in effect, a one-man army. In the course of this project, he has worn many hats