Sansara: Russians plug into music of transformation

On January 25, Moscow club 16 Tons hosted a concert by Sansara, a band with an Indian name (“sansara” is Russian for “samsara,” which means the world). Inspired by the Buddhist ideals of life, the band presented its new, eponymous album that enthralled Russians. The passion for Indian names is a recent trend in Russian pop culture, but the Sansara project has been around for about 15 years. RIR spoke to Sasha Gagarin and Ivan Startsev, two of the leading lights of the new wave of indie-rock, to find out how India and its philosophical traditions have influenced the band’s music and the musicians' sense of themselves.