After a hiatus of five years, the premier Blues band of Nepal, Mukti And Revival have returned to the music scene with a new album. Their fourth set “Sadhai Bhari” was released on October 12, Friday at an event that took place at Trisara, Lazimpat.

The group have covered genres from blues to folk music and even recorded Newari songs for their latest effort which has a total of 10 tracks. It consists of lyrics by Sunil Shrestha, Om Shanker Shrestha, Bibek Ojha, Prakash Deep and Bhola Poudel.

“We don’t work on programmed music but create new tunes each time. After our last album “Dekhdai Chu”, we decided to take a break and come up with something intriguing and provide something new for our listeners,” says frontman and vocalist Mukti Shakya.

It took them a year and half to create this album. Collaborating with brilliant and progressive musicians like Rubin Shrestha, Raju Maharjan, Kiran Nepali; from classical music ensemble Kutumba, organist Gunwalg Hagen (Norway) and violinist Tobias Huber (Switzerland) during studio sessions makes it the most anticipated album of the year.

“Kalanki ko Jam, was one of our most well received album and with “Sadhai Bhari”, we have tried to bring back the very magic it created,” adds Shakya. The single “Bidai” is dedicated to Shakya’s father and is also his favourite song from the album.

Though previously they have been reviving old Newari songs, this time around they have created one of their own for Dashain and Tihar called “Mohini Nakha:”.

Mukti And Revival currently consists of Mukti Shakya on guitar/vocals; Roshan Kansakar on bass; Sunit Kansakar on guitar and Prajol Kansakar on drums.