all pictures © Darek Gontarski
Berlin-based guitarist/composer Julian Datta now mainly writes and plays for his band, the Kancha Lanka Koalition - with Richard Koch on trumpet, Rafael Espinoza on bass, and Javi Reyes on drums.
He originally started out in garage rock bands as a teenager, while already being intrigued by contemporary classical, avant jazz and other types of explorative music. Mostly self-taught, he has been investigating jazz, rhythm & blues, classical guitar, and konnakol (south-indian spoken rhythms), while also developing a personal vocabulary for improvisation and a personal approach to composition.
(Rehearsal excerpt w/ Tayfun Schulzke, drums, and Gidi Farhi, bass, 2018)
He played many different styles over the years, with a special focus on driving poly-rhythms. Highlights include theatre-work with performance artist Etoile Chaville ("Josephine Baker - Mirror and Shadow", 2024; "Postcards from the Labyrinth", 2019), and touring with Santiago Blaum's music theater company (Nietzsche Contra Wagner Nueva Germania Opera Tropical, 2013).
With various projects, he has performed on stages all over Germany, in Austria, Switzerland, Poland, France, Senegal, and the United States.
In the studio, he has worked with soundtrack composer Christian Conrad („Westwind“, 2011) and Frankie Flowerz (albums "Nightride", 2024, „Tales from the Living Room“, 2019, and „Girlz and Boyz“, 2011, all on Funkhaus Music), among others.
Copyright 2025 © Julian Datta. All rights reserved.