A self-taught musician, Sen started the band,
Indian Ocean, with Late Asheem Chakravarty in 1990. They were joined by
Rahul Ram in 1991, and in 1991 by multi-instrumentalist
Amit Kilam completing the quartet. Using Indian rhythms, melodies and folk music influences the band created a unique sound and soon achieved success; in following decades produced five studio albums, and a live album,
Desert Rain. Besides this a concert DVD,
Indian Ocean Live In Concert of their two-hour live concert at the
Garden of Five Senses in Delhi was released in 2008.
Leaving Home – the Life & Music of Indian Ocean (2010) directed by
Jaideep Varma, it became the first band ever in India to be subject of a documentary. Founder member, Chakravarty died suddenly in 2009, due to heart attack. In 2012, he started touring with a new setup of artistes, called
The Susmit Sen Chronicles, which included drummer Nikhil Vasudevan, bassist Anirban Ghosh, tabla player Varun Gupta and vocalists Amit Sharma and
Sudhir Rikhari. However, he joined the Indian Ocean for a farewell tour in end 2013, thereafter he was replaced by guitarist Nikhil Rao. Early 2014 saw the release of an eponymously titled coffee table photography book on the group's history. As a tribute, the Dehradun Guitar Company has created the SS Series of Guitars named after Susmit Sen. He started work on his second solo-album in October 2013 and completed it in following March. In July 2014, the album
Ocean to Ocean was released, which also featured a collaborative track with
Bernie Marsden, the former Whitesnake guitarist. Later in the year he released his memoir,
Ocean to Ocean: A Memoir co-written with Sehba Imam. In its 2014 listing of "25 Greatest Indian Rock Songs of the last 25 Years", "
Rolling Stone India" featured two songs,
Ma Rewa and
Kandisa from the album,
Kandisa (2000). ==Discography==