‘Shruthi’ to continue the legacy of the ‘Fortunes’
Two sons of the original members of the reputed ‘Fortunes’, a 1980s musical band led by the legendary music composer Stanley Peiris, have come together to continue the musical journey that was started by their fathers.
‘Shruthi’, a musical band is formed by Kasun Pasquel, the son of guitarist and singer Keerthi Pasquel and Thisara Bandara, son of one of the leading guitarists, Mahinda Bandara and his wife Damayanthi Walpola.
The band which started few months ago, released new versions of songs sung by popular singers every Friday via ‘Shruthi’ youtube stream. Each month is dedicated to a singer and four of his or her songs will be performed with novel musical arrangements and released to the web. While Keerthi Pasquel was featured in November, Samitha Mudunkotuwa will be featured during the month of December.
‘The idea of forming this band was there for a long time. So I, together with Thisara, decided to start ‘Shruthi’ to continue the legacy of the ‘Fortunes’, through which our fathers started their musical career’ said Kasun speaking to the TV Times.
Just like their fathers, Kasun and Thisara were good friends from their childhood, and they decided to use the technology and do a musical video for ‘youtube’ every week.
‘Youtube is now more close to the people than TV’ Kasun said bringing to us the memory of ‘Fortunes’, one of the first bands to appear on television, the newly discovered audio-visual medium in the 1980s. Then it was musicians like Rookantha, Mahinda Bandara, Keerthi Pasquel and their leader Stanley Peiris who performed on the small screen.
Kasun was grateful to internationally renowned musical audio equipment brand ‘Bose Professional’ and ‘Siedles’, fwho came forward to sponsor the videos for the coming months.
Shruthi will have its first public performance on January 26 at the BMICH. The musical evening, a charity concert with more than fifteen veteran artistes will gather for a worthy cause.
‘My instrument is Western Violin which I first learnt from renowned violinist Ananda Dabare and I went to Australia to do my Bachelor of Applied Music degree’ says Thisara Bandara who joined Kasun to start ‘Shruthi’.
Thisara, who handles most of the musical arrangements for the songs that are performed by the band, plays the violin and guitar for ‘Shruthi’.
‘It is a privilege to reunite as sons of Fortunes members and continue the legacy of the Fortunes and what it did for the country’s music. We are ready to follow in the footspets of the ‘Fortunes’ and we are proud to say that’ said Thisara who also works as a freelance violinist on his father’s recordings.
With an exposure to international music, Thisara believes that Sri Lankan musicians havethe potential to make it to the world music scene.
‘We do have really talented musicians in Sri Lanka and what we are lacking is technical knowledge and support’ explained Thisara who added that, with people connected globally, it would be possible.
‘Musically, we have really talented players. There are some international players as well.We have the potential to be in the internatiol field’ he added.
The band consists eight youngsters who are versatile instrumentalists with the ability to play multiple instruments varying from Western to Eastern.
Other young musicians in the band are Dilruk Samaradiwakara –(lead guitar/ mandolin/ banjo), Eshan De Silva (saxophone / vocals), Dilshan Senarathna (keyboard/ piano), Shammika Mohotti (percussion), Shirantha Abeyrathne (drums) and Dilon Jayalath (Bass – Vocals).