ANANDA SEN'S ‘PAGES FROM THE PAST’ WOULDN'T EXIST WITHOUT MITI ADHIKARI

Kolkata-bred, Goa-based artist from The Supersonics and the Ritornellos has been gathering songs for his solo album for eight years

- By ANURAG TAGAT

Rock artist Ananda Sen and producer Miti Adhikari were like family. Rock artist Ananda Sen and producer Miti Adhikari were like family. So when the veteran sound engineer was admitted to the hospital just ahead of the listening session for his solo album, Pages From The Past, Sen was on the verge of cancelling the event altogether. “I was going to cancel it because I was in no state,” he says. “But, you know, Sam, his wife was like, you can’t do it. He would be super pissed at you.”

Speaking just days after Adhikari’s passing, the Kolkata-bred, Goa-based Sen—best known for his work with rock acts like the Supersonics and the Ritornellos—simply says, “This is the hardest album I’ve made.”

About eight years in the making, this one is deeply personal for Sen. It’s not just because Adhikari—the one who pushed Sen to complete and release Pages From The Past—is no more, but also because Sen mined some of his most intimate memories to write songs like “Chang,” “Sky High” and “Give It All Away.”