Varlden is Swedish for world, and boy, do they live up to that name! An iconic formation of musicians from all over the world, Varlden band has taken us all up in a storm. Varlden has members with as diverse ethnicities and cultures as possible. People from three continents and utterly varying tastes and talents in contrasting genres of music have come together as one, in this fourteen-head band.

In the autumn of 2012, the Swedish Folk Act Kolonien created Varlden as an experimental folk music project to bring together the passionate musicians from all over the world. According to their official website varldensband.com, the idea was “to create a new big band of folk music with people and different cultural and economic backgrounds- a group seemingly impossible to fit together and a board set for possible conflict with religious and political differences.”

All differences apart, surprisingly, the band members have found their places in the group. As they say, music is a language that connects people without having the need to understand it. This unconventional music group aims at becoming an inevitable contributor in world music and a pathway to let the world know that by overcoming the differences that we make, common understanding can be created.

The band has artists that come from various countries like India, Sweden, Tunisia, Scotland, Senegal, England and France.

Varlden is essentially the idea of two brothers Erik Rask and his brother Arvid. One of the Indian members, Charu, says that she never was planning to be part of indie music and that she got selected for an Ethno Swedish band. She was shortlisted along with six other members from around 120 musicians who auditioned, which led to the formation of Varlden.

Charu admits that she used to think of Indian classical music as the most complex one but she was mind-blown by the complexities of other music as well. She says that she has changed a lot and her narrow perspective about music has changed into a wide one.

Charu explains that the success of the band other than the good music it produces is that the number of females in the band is high. Sweden is a place where women are expected to be treated equally and for this reason along with the fact that they are talented and tasteful with mutual respect for all the members, Varlden is now on its way of becoming an indispensable part of world music.

Varlden has already done three acclaimed tours in Sweden and one UK tour which rewarded them with standing ovations from Glasgow to London. There are more tours and albums being worked on at the moment. In a world divided by wars and conflicts and ruled by corruption, let us hope that Varlden gets their message of peace and harmony through differences, across the entire globe.