Rakkatak is a Toronto based, tabla soaked, beat induced, female fronted collective. It merges Indian rhythms with lustrous instrumental melodies and tasteful electronic soundscapes to present classical tabla compositions in a modern and innovative way. Rakkatak started as Anita Katakkar‘s solo project, out of her need to highlight and share the subtle beauty of tabla, in a non-traditional way. Growing up in Toronto gave Anita a diverse taste in music including folk, reggae, hip hop, rock, house and ambient electronica. She brought all of these influences to the table when conceiving Rakkatak’s debut CD in studio. From there, the band Rakkatak was formed. In addition to tabla player and front woman Anita Katakkar, the band consists of bass player and groove superglue Oriana “Bootsy” Barbato, guitar player and melody factory Carlos Lopes and sax/harmonium player and solo sorbet Lisa Patterson. With Indian/Scottish roots in multicultural Toronto, Anita Katakkar‘s music practice represents a link between her heritage and community. In Toronto, she studied tabla with composer and musician Ritesh Das and in California and Kolkata with the pre-eminent exponent of the Lucknow style tabla, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. Anita has performed, toured internationally and recorded with the Toronto Tabla Ensemble and Jeff Martin and has toured nationally with The Tea Party. She has shared the stage with legendary Kathak dancer Chitresh Das, flamenco dancer Esmeralda Enrique, sitar virtuoso Anwar Khurshid, Canadian/Armenian guitarist Levon Ichkhanian and Paris based singer/songwriter Melissa Laveaux. Oriana Barbato‘s signature style doesn’t come from market trends. This Chilean bassist goes well beyond pop by adding her knowledge of world music and downright technique to her bass playing. Oriana’s versatility, work ethic, and stage presence have brought her to venues across North America and Europe, where she was last seen opening with latin/flamenco fusion act TaKiLo for La Troba Kung Fu. She has also shared the stage with world-renowned musicians such as Qawwali master Shahid Ali Khan and Warwick endorsed bass prodigy Jorge Campos as well as opening for Canadian acts Bif Naked and Nomadic Massive. Oriana is also a sound artist and has composed music for short films. Her work has been exhibited at various art galleries in North, South America and Europe. Carlos Lopes is a composer, producer, Genie Award Winner, 2 time Gemini nominee and 4 time Golden Reel nominee. He is a highly respected musician across Canada who has produced hundreds of domestic and international musical projects for film, television and albums for more than 25 years. Leading his own bands Carlos has performed at The Montréal Jazz Festival, Québec Festival D’Eté, Festi-Jazz de Rimouski, Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, Beaches International Jazz Festival (Toronto), Harbourfront (Molson Jazz Festival, Toronto), Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria duMaurier Jazz Festivals, and at the Ontario Pavillion, Expo ’86 (Vancouver). Lisa Patterson is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, performer and producer. As a recording/performing artist Lisa has commercially released 2 solo albums and 3 music videos (Festival Distribution/Canada; Rough Trade Records/Europe) enjoying 3 Top Ten charted singles in The Benelux. Lisa’s songs have appeared in award-winning documentaries, shorts and feature films including Bruce McDonald’s “Roadkill”, Charles Johnston’s “Tete A Tete”, Darrell Wasyk’s “H” and Ingrid Veninger’s “Three Sisters On Moon Lake”. Collaboration highlights include vocalist/musician Maryem Tollar, tabla and ghazal maestro Cassius Khan, Roma violinist Lache Cercel, and esteemed musicians in South India including Darbuka Siva (percussion), Rahul Pophali (tabla), Navin Iyer (flutes), Venkata Subramanian (mrdangam) and Prakash (bass).