Sruti, swara, raga, and tala are the basic foundations of Indian classical music. You'll typical find instruments such as the mridangam, tambura, tabla and ganjira, used in that form of music. But when you fuse typical blues lines into Indian classical music, that's where typicality stops and the magic of music begins. Some call it world music. Others, fusion. Regardless which genre box the world wants to put this music into, it's basically an exploration of the boundaries in music and discovering new expressions.

The idea of blending different musical traditions with modern music just as jazz, rock or pop is not new. Early practitioners of the genre were said to be Shakti, a group that merged Indian music with elements of jazz. Then you have Ancient Future, a musical group that meshed various old music traditions with jazz, rock and reggae. Fast forward to the present and you now have Akasha joining the ever-growing list of world music bands.

Akasha was a group initially formed to perform at the 2008 Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) in Kuching. It's a combination of two local bands that have been dabbling with Indian classical music. One was Prana, a seven piece group with similar musical styling as Akasha and the other, Inner Space, from the Temple of Fine Arts. 'It was kind of thrown together actually because the band they originally wanted was some form of the Prana band but then we weren't playing together anymore,’ says Jamie Wilson, the composer, arranger and guitarist of Akasha. 'So then we tried to put something together by using half of one band and half of another band. And it turned out to be really good.' So good in fact that this supposed one-off gig turned the group into a long term project. 'The response is really good so you just have to keep going,' quips Wilson.

The band's name itself is a Sanskrit word, which means ethereal space or bountiful space as Sivabalan S Shanmuga Sundram, the mridangam, ganjira and kunnakol practitioner of the band explains. 'Antares, the person that got us the gig for Rainforest World Music Festival was the person that christened the name for us,' Siva reveals. 'We decided it sounds good and it reflected what we wanted to do. It fits the band because we're using these instrumentation to explore blues, Latin, rumba, jazz and other music as much as possible.'

While purists might crucify the musicians for fusing traditional Indian music forms with Westernised music, Akasha is certain most of their audience will be able to take it. 'A Malaysian Indian is already a little fusion as compared to the traditional India Indian,' says Kumar Karthigesu, the sitar player. 'You might be wearing an Indian top but wearing jeans and you'll see loads of Indians eating in a Chinese shop. So it has become a common thing in our environment.'

'A big difference with the way this band is doing it which might probably get these guys into trouble with the purists is Kumar is playing BB King lines on the sitar or the percussionists fit their parts into something which has a little more Latin feel,' expresses Wilson. 'I think there was a famous quote that said "Show me a purist and I'll show you a deaf person". Because it means they've decided already what's music. What's right. What's wrong without giving them a chance to enjoy or not enjoy it.'

And that is what makes Akasha stand out from the numerous world fusion bands. The band explores the possibility of using traditional instruments to play modern music and also have Western instruments playing traditional music. The band's unique sound features blues but also fiddles with Latin, irish jig and the Malaysian joget. With each having more then 20 years of experience in music, these boys know what they are talking about.

Now with less than a year in formation, Akasha has produced their debut album dubbed 'Into... Akasha'. The ten-track album came hot on the heels of RWMF as they garnered a large fan base, requesting their material. 'The stuff is really, really pop and that's all concentrating on the entertainment factor,' clarifies Greg Henderson, the famous sound engineer, producer and bassist of the group. 'This whole purist thing and how people assess music from a musical point of view is all well and good but I think generally the general public doesn't even think of music in those terms. They just want to be entertained.'

'In terms of musical content, melody or rhythm structure, we are in no shortage and it's rich,' Kumar speaks. 'We've got the musicality and it's strong. Now it's tweaking it to make it popular. So there's no conflict there. We're not sacrificing or watering anything down to make it commercial or popular.'

How could that be when the boys have been invited for this year's 12th RWMF? They are also slated to perform at Harvard University and at the Tubac Plaza World Music Day Festival in Arizona. With the current line up of Siva, Kumar, Jamie, Greg and not forgetting Vic Ramakrishnan on tabla and kunnakol, Badar Fawzi on percussions and Eric Li on piano, things are looking good for 2009.