Prem Joshua, Germany

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Prem Joshua is a pioneer in the field of World Music, exploring and creating a new synthesis in music beyond the borders of East and West. Drawing inspiration from the deep wells of eastern music traditions, Joshua has never lost touch with the pulse of contemporary western music.

Born to a musical family in Germany he began learning the flute at the age of five and became a fine flautist when still a child. As a teenager he started learning electric guitar and saxophones. His practicing Rock and Jazz could not only be heard in his own house. Some of his neighbors (classical music teachers!) still haven't forgiven him to this day! Nevertheless he was soon performing in various Rock, Jazz and Fusion bands to a more appreciative audience, always searching for new ways of expressing and expanding his music.

In the late seventies, at the young age of 18 he knew only one thing: what he DIDN'T want to do! He left home and high school and ended all his career plans to go overland from Europe to India and join the "hippie tribe" in an attempt to find out what he really wanted.

On his first three overland trips to the East he traveled throughout countries like Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He became deeply involved with traditional oriental folk music, playing live with and learning from local musicians everywhere. "I loved the roots of this music and felt an immediate connection that I missed so much in Central European folk," he says.

When he reached India he had a sensation of knowing it; it felt like coming home! Along with the feeling of familiarity there seemed to be an inexplicable vibe of at-ease-ness in this country of mysteries, contradictions, colors and smells. One of his first actions in India was to buy a sitar in Delhi for the price of what you pay for it's strings today.

"This was really coming home! For the following years I did nothing but be with this man, meditate and play, play, play music. Here I found the musical and spiritual nourishment and satisfaction that I had been looking for. I started playing with musicians from all over the world and learning from some of India's finest teachers, among them Maestro Ustad Usman Khan, who became my sitar mentor."

email: prem@sudeepaudio.com