THE contemporary fusion band Indian Ocean is "the sound of contemporary India getting to know itself".

Even as it reels you in and spins you around, the sound is hard to pin down.  There are those bright and throaty earth colours of Indian folk music. There is that gritty jazz fluidity. And the mad, beautiful mathematics of Hindustani classical improvisation. Listen again, and you hear both the sour-sweet tunes of vintage Hindi Filmi music and the throb of Africa. All merging in an expanse of passion and innovation. Resulting in something utterly unique  a recognizably Indian texture, but a very cosmopolitan sound.

Indian Ocean is a great Indian band with cult status in its homeland. It now has an international following. They have performed at the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts (Wellington), the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (Washington DC), MIT. (Cambridge, MA), the Purcell Room, Royal Festival Hall (London), the Japan Foundation Forum (Tokyo), the Melbourne International Festival and the Festival of India in Indonesia, in addition to a short stint at the Edinburgh Fringe.

On their website, Indian Ocean's work is described as the place where "the improvisational depths of Indian classical music and the cathartic intensity of rock" meet.

"Their lyrics celebrate individual journeys to transform the self as well as collective struggles to change the world. These songs of liberation and redemption fuse memorable melodies with compelling rhythms."

The line-up consists of Amit Kilam (drums, gabgubi, khol, recorder, vocals), Asheem Chakravarty (tabla, other percussion, vocals), Rahul Ram (Bass guitar, vocals) and Susmit Sen (acoustic guitar). They are all largely self-taught.

Kilam's drumming moves to the longer cycles of Indian music (8,12,14,16 beats), enmeshing with the tabla to create a solid rhythm section, while Chakravarty's unique, intuitive style of tabla-playing coupled with a magnificent voice make up one of the strongest elements of the band's unique sound. It's almost impossible to sing while playing tabla, but Chakravarty carries it off with style.

Ram's bass is multi-dimensional, moving from holding up the rhythm section to a tanpura-like drone to playing signature lines, and Sen has virtually invented a new style of playing the guitar, and his virtuosity has been compared to that of John McLaughlin.  His guitar lines and sound are one of the strongest elements of the weave that is Indian Ocean.

The band grew out of a friendship formed between Sen and Chakravarty, who met during a concert. Sen played guitar while Chakravarty was a tabla player and drummer. They would jam and play the occasional concert.

In 1990 Sen raised the money for a demo for the band - now called Indian Ocean. It featured Shaleen Sharma on drums, and Indrajit Dutta and Anirban Roy on bass. This demo led to an album deal with HMV.

Bass player Ram joined in 1991, replacing Roy. When Sarma left the band in 1994 he was replaced by Kilam, who was just out of his teens and still writing college exams.

These four have been the line-up ever since.

After a long struggle for recognition - in their first five years they played only four concerts, Indian Ocean started to gain recognition after a New Year's Day concert in Delhi in 1997. Having waited for seven hours to go on stage their performance was electric and the band realised that they had got their next album - Desert Rain.

A recording of the show was released a couple of months later by a company called Independent Music and the press was suddenly interested in this "new" band.

Suddenly everyone was talking about Indian Ocean. Sen, Kilam and Ram got the honour of playing a concert with the legendary violinist Pt L Subramanyam, while Chakravarty played a concert with folk singer Pete Seeger .The whole band also did various jamming sessions with many visiting artists and continue to do so even today.

Bookings started to increase and in 1998 they were finally signed by Times Music. A few months later, Indian Ocean was invited to play at the millennium celebrations at Khajuraho.

Their album Kandisa was released in 2000, attaining cult status. It was this album that changed Indian Ocean's path - putting them on the national and international scene.

Since then they have played around the world and are now India's most renowned band globally.