Meet Sakre, Bengaluru’s sound archivist

Musician Sakre talks about his work and his journey, decoding his method and process along the way

Joel Sakkari, who performs as Sakré, has a theory about why certain songs feel inescapable. Growing up in Karnataka, he was surrounded by South Indian music from the likes of Ilaiyaraaja, Hamsalekha, Rajan-Nagendra and others.

“These songs used to be playing everywhere. You could not escape them,” he says. What began as an osmotic experience has since become the structural backbone of everything he makes. As a producer and guitarist who builds beats almost entirely outside a computer — primarily on the SP 404, a hardware sampler with a devoted cult following among beatmakers in hip-hop and electronic music — Sakré has carved out a sound that takes the harmonic richness of beloved Kannada and Tamil film music and processes them the way a jazz musician might, not to replicate, but to improvise.

Earlier this month, Sakré brought that sensibility to Sonos Sound Suites, an immersive listening experience held at The Conservatory in Shanti Nagar, Bengaluru, where the emphasis on high-end audio was mirrored as a natural fit for his music. He performed a solo set alongside a collaboration with singer-songwriter Sahana Naresh adding Hindustani classical vocal elements.

For Sakré, these curator-led listenership events are where his music breathes best. “My music requires an audience who come with an open mind. They curated people from various fields who were already inclined towards listening — so I was in the right setting where my music also becomes part of that experience.”

Sakre with Sahana Naresh | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The composer who looms largest over Sakré’s reference palette is Ilaiyaraaja. “Raja Sir has pushed a lot of boundaries, and his soundscape has defined the entirety of South Indian cinema,” he says.