With featuring a motley of industry bigwigs, Viraj Mohan aka Krajimo, the live industrial electronica act from Delhi, is all set to release his first album called ‘Lunar Howl’ in May. The title track and first single from the album has been released through VH1 today, alongside being available on digital platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music and even TikTok’s new music streaming app Resso.
Karajimo is no newbie to the music space. After being a regular in the live circuit for years and recently also unveiling a DJ set, Karajimo has collaborated with people that he’s worked with previously for this project. For instance, former Another Vertigo Rush bandmate, Nikhil Rufus Raj is on bass on this album while Keshav Dhar who is widely known for his work with progressive metal band Skyharbor has produced and mixed the album in tandem with Mohan. “For this album, I decided to get rid of the noise in my head. It’s industrial — has noisy synths with distorted guitars and a lot of ambient sound designing, “ said Mohan describing the sonic structure of the album. “The album is about a harsh overextended phase I was going through. The concept revolves around always finding hope,” he added.
While Karajimo has been actively playing for various years now, only now has Viraj taken the step to release his music. “I believe there is always a right time and place for everything. I finished writing 90% of the album about 3 years ago and have been just working on the sound design and mood of the album for a while. Keshav Dhar bore the main brunt of me trying to make this album perfect (in my head). I’ve also been experimenting a lot with different genres considering the artists I’ve been playing live with for the past 10 years (Curtain Blue, Punditz, Grain, Karsh Kale, Sundogproject, The Pirate Radio). It kind of gave me the flexibility to try and marry two different art forms (Music and Sound designing). The soundscape for most songs is very cinematic and film-oriented.”
While most artists are taking the decision to go forward with the release of singles, Karajimo’s resolve to go forward with an album during a predicted lockdown period is an aberration. When asked if he had any apprehensions about the performance of the release, Viraj says “The lockdown hopefully will allow people to step out of their busy lives and slow things down just a bit to get back in touch with themselves. Music releases at this moment are very important for artists because this is the moment where people may be able to take out time and listen to the music. The idea of concept albums got lost along the way simply because of the attention span of the listeners. Hopefully, this time off allows them to go through the whole picture rather than just looking at one corner”.
