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By Isha Banerjee
Music, Psychology, and Humanities
There is a peculiar habit in the music business, and no, it is not bad singing, terrible mastering, or a singer who believes that three octaves of vibrato constitute a personality. It is the outstanding characteristic of the industry to celebrate the visible while overlooking the people who help make the music possible.
Everybody has a title. Everybody has a photograph. Everybody has a carefully arranged biography. Yet somewhere behind the curtain, somebody is shaping the sound, solving a mechanical puzzle, coordinating a session, or making an artistic decision that changes the character of a recording. That person may receive a line in a credit list. If the public is feeling unusually generous, perhaps a mention in the acknowledgments.
This pattern becomes especially striking with a project of international spec: Ricky Kej’s Gandhi: Mantras of Compassion, a musical tribute to Mahatma Gandhi’s message of peace and compassion. The album features Ricky Kej, Grammy-nominated cellist Tina Guo, Grammy-winning Japanese shamisen player Masa Takumi, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi, alongside an international ensemble of musicians and vocalists. Among the featured performers across its tracks are Stewart Copeland, Ricky Dillard, Ron Korb, Ronu Majumdar, Purbayan Chatterjee, and the New York Youth Symphony.
Ideally, I would have the opportunity to discuss every person who contributed to this ambitious project at length. Since I own the album and have looked it through, I am listing the executive producers credited there, along with a selection of individuals acknowledged in the Special Thanks credits. For this article, however, I have selected a few contributors about whom I could find information, attempting to bring their work into view and give them a bit of well-deserved recognition.
The executive producers are Padmanabhan NS, Keith Middleton, Diana Veigas, Nishanth Ravindranathan, Michelle Jones, Esin Ozlem Aydingoz, Alexander Lloyd Blake, Ron Korb, Nate Horton, Herbert Waltl, Scott Lazerson, Ricky Dillard, Siddharth Basrur, IP Singh, Praveen Shivalingam, Pramod Chandorkar, Shashank Akella, Sundeep Bhutoria, Jyoti Venkatraman, Mari Nobre, Alexandra Cutler-Fetkewicz, George Varghese, Sairam Sagiraju, Rocio Marron, Manoj George, Ingrid Şerban, Chase Flow Bradley, Ryoji Hata, Brandon Hartt, Nick-Wolf, Andrew Smith, Rory Gardiner, and Kobi Arad.
The album also includes a lengthy Special Thanks list. A short selection of those acknowledged includes Aasha Suresh, Aleksi Glick, Allison Charney, Arun Luthra, Barry D, Bob Johnson, Brent Fischer, Brewer Shettles, Bruce Monical, Catherine Joy, Charles-Henri Avelange, Christina Gaudet, Chuck Zwicky, Curtis Maco, Dale Edward, Dalton MacDonald, Darlene Koldenhoven, DA Goldman, Denise Barbarita, Devin Ferreira, Dianna Saint Elise Morris, Eshaan Gupta, and Frank Rendo.
Ron Korb, an internationally recognized flautist and composer, draws on musical traditions from different parts of the world. His work demonstrates how instrumental performance and composition may shape an album’s musical color and cultural character.
Herbert Waltl, a three-time Grammy-winning audio professional, specializes in immersive and surround sound. His background reflects the technical craft involved in shaping a recording for an engaging listening experience.
Brent Fischer is a Grammy-winning producer, composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist. Son of the late composer and arranger Clare Fischer, he has developed a career spanning jazz, pop, and symphonic music. His credits include work with Michael Jackson, Prince, Usher, and Elvis Costello and the Roots. His arranging and production work demonstrates how orchestration and instrumental color may shape the character of a recording.
Ryoji Hata is a New York-based mastering engineer whose work has included recordings associated with David Bowie and Philip Glass. Mastering helps establish a recording’s final sonic balance and presentation.
Rory Gardiner is credited among the album’s executive producers. His publicly available portfolio identifies him as a photographer known for documenting architecture and the built environment. Further information connecting his photographic work with his role on this album is not readily available.
IP Singh, also known as Inder Pal Singh, is a composer, sound designer, music director, and researcher. He co-founded the Indian band Menwhopause and later released the solo album The Wild Blue Yonder, which blends electronic soundscapes with textures drawn from different musical traditions.
Scott Lazerson, a media strategist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, has worked across public-facing and cultural initiatives. His background illustrates how projects with an international reach may draw on expertise beyond performance and recording.
Ricky Dillard, a Grammy-nominated gospel recording artist and choir director, brings extensive experience in vocal music and ensemble leadership.
Siddharth Basrur, an Indian vocalist, songwriter, and composer, has worked across contemporary Indian music, bringing experience from India’s independent and popular music scenes.
Praveen Shivalingam is credited as an executive producer on the album. His inclusion reflects the organizational work that supports a large collaborative recording, although further publicly available biographical information is limited.
Pramod Chandorkar, an award-winning recording and mixing engineer and educator, has built a career around the technical and creative dimensions of recorded sound. His experience includes work in Indian film and music production.
Shashank Akella has worked in media and post-production and has been associated with Ricky Kej’s projects. This kind of work helps shape how music and accompanying visual materials reach their audiences.
Sundeep Bhutoria, an author, cultural advocate, and social activist, has supported initiatives involving culture and public engagement. His background reflects the wider cultural network surrounding projects that carry a humanitarian message.
Jyoti Venkatraman is credited as an executive producer. Her credit places her among the people involved in coordinating and supporting the album’s production.
Mari Nobre, a vocalist and ethnomusicologist as well as a Recording Academy member, brings experience in performance and the study of musical traditions. Her work illustrates how musical practice and cultural knowledge may inform one another.
Christina Gaudet, a singer-songwriter, composer, producer, and Recording Academy voting member, is acknowledged in connection with the project. Her work spans performance and music creation.
Kobi Arad, an award-winning pianist, composer, and Grammy voter, brings the perspective of a performing musician and composer.
These backgrounds illustrate how an album emerges through musical interpretation, technical decisions, planning, and collaboration. Some contributions are heard directly in the performances; others shape the recording and the process through which it reaches an audience.
Public attention rarely follows every part of that process equally. The artist whose name leads a release naturally becomes its public representative, while contributors may receive less attention despite the experience and work they bring to a project.
Credits offer a starting place for recognizing this network of people. They record names and roles, allowing listeners to see that a musical project extends beyond the face most familiar to its audience. Gandhi: Mantras of Compassion carries a message of compassion through music. Recognizing the people behind it offers a related gesture of appreciation for the community that helped bring its shared artistic vision to life
