This band should go international: David Angu & The Tribe win hearts at Ziro Music Festival

Arunachal Pradesh’s folk traditions found a contemporary voice at the 14th Ziro Festival of Music, as David Angu & The Tribe took the stage recently, bringing their distinctive blend of folk and rock to the four-day festival. Held from September 24 to 27 in Ziro Valley, the festival brought together more than 40 acts from India and overseas, with a strong representation from Northeast India.David Angu & The Tribe stood out with a performance that brought the region’s folk traditions into a contemporary live-music setting. The band has built its identity around exploring and reimagining indigenous folk melodies and languages from Arunachal Pradesh. Their repertoire has included Galo, Apatani, Nyishi and Tagin influences."Our music is not simply a fusion of sounds. It draws from oral traditions and folk melodies passed down through generations, giving them a modern arrangement while retaining their cultural roots," share the band members. Angu has previously described the project as an effort to make Arunachal’s folk music more accessible to younger and wider audiences.Their 2019 folk-rock track 'Ho Delo', for instance, was based on an old Galo oral tradition, while songs such as ‘Ommem’, ‘Daliyedali’, ‘Paku No’, ‘Kolosikoliya’ and ‘Jaiye Ja’ have explored folk traditions associated with different communities of Arunachal Pradesh.At Ziro, the response from the audience reflected the growing curiosity around such a sound. Following their performance, several people spoke about the band’s potential to take Arunachal’s folk music beyond India, with one sentiment coming up repeatedly — 'This is a band that should go international'.For a festival that itself brings Indian and international musicians together in the hills of Arunachal, the moment felt fitting. Ziro has long positioned itself as a platform for Northeast Indian artists alongside musicians from across India and the world.David Angu & The Tribe’s performance showed that folk music does not necessarily have to remain confined to its traditional setting. With the right contemporary treatment, the sounds of Arunachal can travel — while still carrying the stories, languages and cultural memory from which they came.And perhaps that is what made their Ziro performance resonate: it was not an attempt to sound international. It was Arunachal sounding like itself — and making people wonder how far that sound could travel.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ testGet the latest Lifestyle News and more. Download the TOI app.